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To: The government
Eurostar-Stop the Sell off
Please do not sell off Eurostar. It is now making profit for taxpayers!
Why is this important?
Eurostar is now beginning to make a profit for the tax payer, just as the East Coast Railway has, these are publicly run services. East Coast Railway makes a large profit, far bigger than when they were run by the three private companies that ruined them and dumped them, as not profitable. This shows privatisation does not work for this industry, Labour should be screaming about this, but is silent, come on Alan Johnson, speak up, you are a man of intelligence and can effect this decision. Eurostar needs you Alan and it needs you, the tax payer, to protect these services, Eurostar and East Coast Railway.
In 2011 Eurostar delivered its first profit in its first full year of operation as a standalone company. Continuing this momentum, the business today reports an operating profit of £52.3 million in 2012, up from £25.0 million in 2011. This growth in profitability is driven by an increase in the volume of passengers combined with strong cost management across the business*.
''The publicly-owned railway company East Coast returned almost £220m to the taxpayer last year, according to its annual results.
Directly Operated Railways - which was set up by the government in July 2009 to run the East Coast franchise - has announced a post-tax profit of £6.2m.
Its profit before tax and fees to the Department for Transport was £225m, an increase of 8% on the year before.
The franchise is due to be re-privatised in March next year.''
