11.06.15
Network Rail reports 51% fall in profit
Network Rail has reported a 51% fall in pre-tax profit as it publishes its full year results.
The rail infrastructure company said that accounting changes and a decision by the ORR to reduce its income by £246m were the reasons behind the fall.
Network Rail was keen to stress that the income reduction had no impact on money available for investment.
Its debt also widened by nearly £5bn from £33bn to £37.8bn.
The results for 2014-15 also show a record £3.4bn was invested in expanding the rail network.
Over the same 12-month period, the number of journeys on the network grew by 67.3m to a new record high of 1.65bn. Passenger numbers have now more than doubled in the past 20 years.
Patrick Butcher, finance director, said: "The railways continue to grow in popularity and we continue to invest heavily to respond to that demand. While progress is being made in improving performance, safety, asset reliability and delivering more renewals and projects, our rate of acceleration in these areas isn’t yet where we want it to be.
“With more than a million more trains on the network than ten years ago, there are inevitable challenges. We are determined to do more to improve and action is being taken to quicken the pace of change.”
(Picture by: Jonathan Brady)
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