In 2017 Abellio UK reached the largest and most diversified position in its operating history, with the start of the West Midlands franchise in December. In 2018 Abellio was the third largest rail owning group in the UK with around 14% market share by revenue and achieved a consolidated revenue of € 2.47 billion. Abellio’s 4 TOCs each have several years remaining on their contracts. The first potential franchise end could be ScotRail in 2022, should the break clause be exercised (a decision will be made in the second half of 2019). If the ScotRail break clause is not exercised, the first time that Abellio will experience a major contract expiry will not be until 2025 when both the ScotRail and Greater Anglia contracts reach their full terms.
Abellio UK consolidated (excl. Merseyrail) | | |
| | 2018 | 2017** |
€ million | | |
Income | 2,467.0 | 1,742.9 |
EBIT before CLE | 81.7 | 48.3 |
CLE* | -40.7 | -2.9 |
EBIT after CLE | 41.0 | 45.4 |
Intercompany financial result | -12.3 | -6.5 |
Net profit | 26.2 | 29.3 |
CapEx | 45.5 | 70.2 |
- *
of the total CLE impact 2018 € 19 million relates to prior years.
- **
Comparative figures have been adjusted for change in accounting principle regarding railway pension schemes.
Operational performance
Operational performance remains a priority for the TOCs, with strong partnership with Network Rail across all Abellio TOCs. Performance in the UK is measured using the Public Performance Measure (PPM), representing the percentage of trains that have arrived at their final destination within 5 minutes of their scheduled time – having stopped at all scheduled stations. The Abellio rail franchises are all above the average of all UK TOCs. The following table shows the PPM for 2018 and 2017 and number of trains running per day per UK franchise:
| | Train operator | PPM MAA 2018 | PPM MAA 2017 | Trains per day |
| | | | | |
1 | Merseyrail | 95.4% | 95.3% | 608 |
2 | c2c | 93.8% | 95.9% | 385 |
3 | LOROL | 93.7% | 94.6% | 1,444 |
4 | Chiltern | 92.7% | 92.9% | 426 |
5 | TfL Rail | 92.4% | 94.1% | 420 |
6 | Transport for Wales | 91.2% | 89.5% | 964 |
7 | Heathrow Express | 90.5% | 90.3% | 152 |
8 | East Midland Trains | 89.1% | 92.7% | 476 |
9 | Caledonian Sleeper | 88.9% | 87.3% | 8 |
10 | South Eastern | 88.0% | 88.7% | 1,951 |
11 | ScotRail | 87.3% | 90.4% | 2,365 |
12 | Greater Anglia | 87.1% | 89.4% | 1,244 |
13 | West Midland Trains | 85.9% | 88.3% | 1,321 |
| | Average ALL TOCs | 85.7% | 88.4% | |
14 | CrossCountry | 83.6% | 88.8% | 295 |
15 | Great Western | 83.2% | 87.0% | 1,563 |
16 | Virgin West Coast | 83.0% | 86.0% | 303 |
17 | GTR | 81.7% | 90.8% | 3,492 |
18 | South Western | 81.6% | 85.8% | 1,641 |
19 | Northern | 80.7% | 89.2% | 2,815 |
20 | Grand Central | 76.8% | 85.8% | 18 |
21 | TPE | 75.4% | 87.7% | 319 |
22 | LNER (formerly Virgin East Coast) | 73.1% | 84.5% | 148 |
23 | Hull Trains | 68.7% | 79.8% | 15 |
- 1
This table shows the performance of the UK’s train operating companies (MAA = Moving Annual Average) for period 10 of the railway calendar for 2018 and 2017. 13 of these operations are franchised by DfT. ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper are franchised by Transport Scotland and Transport for Wales Rail Ltd is franchised by Transport for Wales. Hull Trains, Heathrow Express, Grand Central are ‘open access’ operators while Merseyrail, LOROL and TFL Rail are public sector operated concessions. LNER is operated directly by DfT.
The decline in PPM over recent years and in 2018 in particular was caused by a range of factors, although the majority of delays are down to Network Rail infrastructure projects and extreme weather.
| | Greater Anglia | Merseyrail | West Midland Trains | ScotRail |
NR on TOC | 65.1% | 56.1% | 57.7% | 57.8% |
TOC on self | 25.6% | 42.2% | 26.2% | 32.4% |
TOC on TOC | 9.3% | 1.7% | 16.1% | 9.8% |
This table shows the causes of delays to Abellio TOCs in 2018 as attributed to the following categories:
NR on TOC: delays attributed to Network Rail on train operating companies, including extreme weather conditions.
TOC on Self: delays attributed to train operating companies by the same train operating company.
TOC on TOC: delays attributed to train operating companies by other train operating companies.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction with rail services is captured in the UK through the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) of around 25,000 rail users, carried out by Transport Focus in Spring and Autumn each year. In line with the industry-wide operational issues and the negative media reporting of the rail industry, overall NRPS scores declined in 2018.
The full 2017 and 2018 overall satisfaction NRPS scores for Abellio TOCS were as follows:
| | Spring 2017 | Autumn 2017 | Spring 2018 | Autumn 2018 | Actual 2018 | Target 2018 |
Merseyrail | 94% | 89% | 92% | 90% | 91% | 90% |
WMT | 84% | 84% | 81% | 84% | 82.5% | 84% |
ScotRail | 90% | 85% | 84% | 79% | 81.5% | 89% |
GA | 83% | 81% | 76% | 73% | 74.5% | 82% |
Average for all British TOCs | 83% | 81% | 81% | 79% | 80% | n/a |
Abellio UK as employer
Abellio UK is a major employer in the UK, employing over 14,000 people in 2018, including Merseyrail. Over the past years, 3 of Abellio’s TOCs (Greater Anglia, ScotRail and Merseyrail) have experienced industrial action mostly associated with proposed introduction of Driver Controlled Operations.