Financial news
Transport for London seeks Crossrail operator B
IDS have been invited by Transport for London (TfL) for a concessionaire to operate the new 118km east- west Crossrail line, the first phase of which is due to open in May 2015.
The concession will run for eight years with an option to extend it by two years, with the 10-year agreement worth around £2bn. The deadline for expressions of interest is April 30 with a view to appointing an operator in late 2014. “We’re looking to appoint a world class operator to run a world class service that will see
ORTUGUESE Trains (CP) ended 2012 with a loss of
Crossrail set the benchmark for railway services in Europe,” says the mayor of London Mr Boris Johnson. Crossrail will take over services currently operated by Greater Anglia between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield using existing trains in May 2015. Crossrail has started the procurement of a fleet of 60 10- car trains worth around £1bn with the first trains due to enter service in May 2017. The British government is set to fund 100% of the costs of the new trains after the government ditched plans last month for a private
finance initiative which would require the winning bidder to shoulder £650m of the cost. The government says the aim of the new funding structure is to ensure timely delivery of the trains ahead of the commencement of operations. The government aims to have a deal in place for the new trains by 2014, with delivery and testing starting in 2017.
The main Crossrail services connecting Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and Paddington will start in late 2018, with the
Improved results for Portuguese Trains P
É222.5m, an improvement of 23% over the previous year, thanks largely to the improved operating performance of the company and its subsidiaries, which reduced their losses. However, the cost of debt servicing has prevented CP from posting even better results, although its overall operating result is 40% better than 2011 due to adjustments in rates and reduced costs. The latter was achieved by
SNCF reports 3% increase in turnover in 2012 energy prices and higher
reducing staff costs as the workforce shrank during 2012. The number of outside contract staff has also been cut. In a statement, CP stressed that “this reduction is not globally visible because of the impact of increased traction,
F
RENCH National Railways (SNCF) says turnover
increased by 3% last year thanks mainly to growth in passenger income and the infrastructure maintenance it carries out on behalf of French Rail Network (RFF). SNCF also managed to
reduce its debt by nearly É1bn to É7.3bn, while net profit trebled to É383m. However, Ebitda increased by just 0.5% to É3bn. The railway spent 48% of its É2.3bn investment budget on new locomotives and rolling stock during the year.
“Against a backdrop still 14
infrastructure charges (paid to Refer).”
In 2012, traffic revenues
decreased by É1m to É211m, reflecting an 11.4% fall in
affected by the economic crisis, SNCF demonstrated excellent responsiveness in 2012,” says SNCF chairman Mr Guillaume Pepy. “Our passenger business remained robust, particularly in the first half of the year. This helped offset developments in freight transport and logistics, now in a downward cycle with markets in full recession.” SNCF’s infrastructure division recorded a 6.4% growth in revenue to É5.5bn, while turnover at its regional passenger transport business increased by around 4% to É12.8bn. Pepy attributes regional passenger growth in
passenger numbers, which CP says “was not unconnected with the high number of strikes that occurred throughout year, with a special emphasis in the fourth quarter.”
particular to “a vigorous rise in passenger numbers and Keolis’s growth outside France.”
Long-distance passenger services achieved a 2.5% revenue rise to É7.5bn overall, but after a surge in sales at the beginning of 2012, business travel by TGV tapered off during the second half of the year as the economy started to wane. Turnover at railfreight and logistics operator SNCF Geodis fell 1.6% to É9.5bn which it attributes to the recession in western Europe and a 7.7% drop in railfreight income.
full service to Maidenhead scheduled for December 2019. Crossrail is expected to carry about 200 million passengers a
year. Siemens has secured a £43m order from Crossrail to supply the operational control and communications systems for the line’s 21km-long tunnels and nine new stations in central London. Siemens will provide integrated station management, line
management, security and information and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) systems.
Balfour Beatty to sell European rail businesses
B
ALFOUR Beatty says that continuing uncertainty in
the Eurozone and its impact on the construction sector is prompting it to sell most of its European businesses, including its railway construction divisions. Pre-tax profits were down 70% to £75m last year while total sales fell 1% to £10.9bn. The construction division finished the year with an order book of £8bn, down 6% on the previous year. As a result incoming CEO Mr Andrew McNaughton, who takes over this month, says the company is “putting some pace” into his predecessor Mr Ian Tyler’s strategy of looking beyond British construction for growth. The company will therefore target opportunities in Australia, which is earmarked as a key focus area. Attempts to expand its mainland Europe businesses beyond rail since it acquired them in 2000 have proved unsuccessful due to fierce competition in Scandinavia and Germany as well the impact of the economic crisis. McNaughton says that following the sale of its Spanish division to management, he plans to divest the remaining divisions by the end of the year, although the German division is expected to take longer due to its decentralised structure.
IRJ April 2013
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