£137 m loss might lead to losing South Western Railway’s franchise

Thursday, January 9, 2020

South Western Railway (SWR) said it was in talks with the government over the future of the contract, which is due to expire in 2024.

South Western Railway (SWR) had been affected by issues including strikes and infrastructure reliability.  The operator owned by FirstGroup and Hong Kong –based firm MTR had been affected by issues concerning strikes and infrastructure reliability.

The operator, owned by FirstGroup and Hong Kong-based firm MTR, said it had been affected by issues including strikes and infrastructure reliability.

For 27 days in December, SWR services were disrupted, this was the latest in a series of strikes over the future of guards.

A loss of £136.9m was reported  by the SWR’s accounts for the year ending March 31, 2019.

DfT could lead to new contract or termination of the current contract within the next 12 months.

For the maximum unavoidable loss the SWR mentioned its owners had set aside funds.

According to a spokesman for the train operating company SWR’s recent performance was affected by issues  like infrastructure reliability, timetabling delays and industrial action.

With the DfT they continue to be in ongoing and constructive discussions. Firms should be stripped of the franchise immediately to avoid a ‘chaotic collapse’  as per the RMT rail union.

In  more than two years of strike over a move by SWR to allow drivers to operate train door as the RMT members.

After two years of strikes by the guards in the RMT union this did not came as a surprise and has SWR was not able to balance the books for sometime.

The infrastructure was unreliable and performance was falling for years.

The new managing director, Mark Hopwood said that the company could fail and operations could be transferred to a government controlled body.

A new deal with revised terms is more likely and it was clear that the option of the last resort was actively considered.

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