Further to last Friday’s post on transport costs here is a more detailed breakdown on rail subsidies courtesy of the DfT.
| Subsidy per passenger mile by Train Operating Company | ||||||
| a | b | c | ||||
| Government Subsidy per passenger mile (pence) | Network grant per passenger mile (pence) | Total subsidy per passenger mile pence) | ||||
| 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | |
| c2c Rail | -0.6 | -1.1 | 7.7 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 6.0 |
| Chiltern | 1.5 | -2.9 | 13.4 | 13.1 | 14.9 | 10.1 |
| CrossCountry | 3.6 | 1.6 | 16.0 | 15.2 | 19.6 | 16.9 |
| East Coast | -1.6 | -5.8 | 6.9 | 6.5 | 5.3 | 0.7 |
| East Midlands Trains | 0.8 | -1.7 | 15.4 | 14.2 | 16.2 | 12.5 |
| First Capital Connect | -4.6 | -6.8 | 6.2 | 5.9 | 1.6 | -0.9 |
| First Greater Western | -0.1 | -3.0 | 10.0 | 9.2 | 9.9 | 6.2 |
| First TransPennine Express (1) | 9.3 | 8.4 | 14.3 | 12.5 | 23.6 | 20.9 |
| London Midland | 9.6 | 5.8 | 13.1 | 11.9 | 22.7 | 17.8 |
| National Express East Anglia | -4.2 | -4.5 | 9.3 | 8.8 | 5.1 | 4.2 |
| Northern | 8.8 | 5.4 | 30.5 | 28.6 | 39.3 | 34.0 |
| Southeastern | 5.2 | 8.8 | 10.5 | 9.9 | 15.7 | 18.7 |
| Southern | 1.9 | -4.0 | 7.9 | 7.4 | 9.8 | 3.5 |
| South West Trains | -4.2 | -5.2 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 3.9 | 2.4 |
| Virgin | 1.5 | -4.7 | 9.4 | 8.4 | 10.9 | 3.7 |
| Total DfT franchised TOCs | 0.7 | -1.8 | 10.7 | 9.9 | 11.4 | 8.1 |
The DfT is blunt about the point of subsidies:
“It is right to use subsidy to buy desirable outcomes for passengers that the market would not otherwise deliver, but subsidy should not be used to mask inefficiency.”
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Notes to the table:
Input indicator
- Latest headline data: The total subsidy to DfT franchised TOCs in 2010-11 was 8.1 pence per passenger mile
- Publishing schedule: annually, August each year
- Information broken down by: DfT franchised Train Operating Company
Latest data
- a) Subsidy paid directly to TOCs by Government Figures published by ORR in the National Rail Trends Yearbook (Table 6.2c) based on passenger kilometres, converted to miles.
- b) An allocation of the network grant (that is, payments made directly to Network Rail)
This is calculated by taking the total network grant, apportioned according to each franchise’s share of Fixed Track Access Charges. - c) Total subsidy per passenger mile (a + b)
Good to see the 2012 RAC Report on Motoring mentions the negative externalities of motoring. Reference to that could have been included here.
And I repeat from last week:
Fine illustration of how some in roads lobby view the “subsidies” splashed on the rail network but who then can’t recognise cash is also splashed on trunk roads and motorways: http://www.railwaypreservation.com/vintagetrolley/CARTOON—SUBSIDY—Car-vs.-Transit-712328.jpg
Thank you for referring to the 2012 RAC Report on Motoring. You might also want to mention the RACF report Fuel for Thought which we commissioned from the Insitute for Fiscal Studies and which was published last month. It deals extensively with externalities.