2018 Overview

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.