The Greater Anglia franchise began operations on 16th October 2016 for a period of 9 years. In April 2017 40% of this franchise was divested to Mitsui for an amount of £ 40 million, which also resulted in a reduction of the PCS guarantee for NS by £ 109 million. The franchise is let by the DfT and provides train services in the East Anglia region on intercity, commuter and rural networks, including services between Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street.
In Summer 2019 Greater Anglia began the roll out of its fleet of new trains. The first bi-mode trains, manufactured by Stadler, have been well received by customers and stakeholders. As the entire fleet is being replaced, the programme will continue throughout 2020 and 2021 with further introduction of Stadler and Bombardier manufactured trains. Other highlights in 2019 included some of the best-ever operational performance on Great Eastern Main Line and Southend routes and significant timetable improvements such as the Norwich in 90-/Ipswich in 60-minute services to and from London introduced in May 2019. Greater Anglia leads the UK rail industry in customer adoption of smartcard season tickets. Over 47% of all season journeys are with a smart card. The Delay Repay 15 compensation policy was implemented early in April 2019, after proactive partnership work with the Department for Transport.
Greater Anglia remains in discussions with the Department for Transport over the impact of the Central London Employment mechanism (CLE) and several other significant contractual matters.
The correlation between the CLE index and passenger growth is not working as intended with rising employment in London not being reflected in rising season ticket revenue. In 2019, a further CLE charge of € 17.5 million was incurred (2018: € 40.7 million).
Greater Anglia (in € million) | 2019 | 2018 |
Revenue | 868 | 777.5 |
EBIT before CLE and IFRS 16 effect | 24.3 | 39.0 |
CLE* | -17.5 | -40.7 |
EBIT before IFRS 16 effect | 6.8 | -1.7 |
IFRS 16 effect | 5.3 | - |
EBIT | 12.1 | -1.7 |
Intercompany financial result ** | -8.0 | -5.1 |
Other financial results | -1.7 | 0.6 |
Profit before tax | 2.4 | -6.2 |
Corporation tax | -0.6 | -1.2 |
Net profit | 1.8 | -5.1 |
Net profit before IFRS 16 impact | -0.3 | 5.1 |
Capital investments | 71.1 | 26.4 |
Equity attributable to NS | 32.4 | 31.5 |
PCS guarantees provided by NS | 192.8 | 181.5 |
Capital at Risk, Greater Anglia | 225.2 | 181.5 |
PCS guarantees called on (NS portion) | 56.7 | 53.4 |
- * In 2019 the net CLE expense, includes a benefit related to prior year reassessment of € 6m. In 2018, the net CLE expense included € 19m of charges related to prior years.
- ** Intercompany financial result consists of interest on shareholder loans and guarantee fees.