Shareholders of the company that owns failed rail company TransPennine Express cashed in with a £15million bonanza before the service hit the buffers.
Parent company FirstGroup shelled out the millions in dividends last year while train passengers were facing delay after delay.
We discovered the gravy train after Transport Secretary Mark Harper said this week the Government will nationalise TransPennine following months of “continuous cancellations”.
FirstGroup paid out an £8.16m dividend in August and shareholders got another interim dividend of £6.7m in December. Meanwhile, TransPennine passengers had to put up with a terrible service – with more than half of trains running late in the final quarter of 2022.
The rail firm, which runs regional and inter-city services in Northern England and Scotland, was panned in a survey for watchdog Transport Focus.
And the actions of FirstGroup have also come under fire. Louise Haigh, shadow secretary of state for transport, told us yesterday: “This operator has failed passengers, yet millions have continued to flow into the pockets of shareholders.
“This is yet another symptom of a broken rail system where passengers come last. The next Labour government will bring our railways back into public ownership as contracts expire, ending the Tories’ cycle of failure.”
TransPennine will fall under Government control at the end of the month.
FirstGroup said: “TransPennine Express is just one part of our... bus and rail business, which employs more than 30,000 people nationwide.
“Our policy is to invest in decarbonisation and in growth opportunities, as well as to pay dividends. In the last year we committed £125m in investment on environmentally friendly vehicles and paid £2bn in wages.”
