9:01am Saturday 28th August 2010
By Dan Bean
A YORK-BASED rail operator which lost almost £8.5 million for each of the last two years, is confident conditions will improve in the next 12 months.
Grand Central Railway, which was praised in Parliament earlier this year for its new service from London to West Yorkshire, said the loss was “in line with expectations”, and the company aimed to be in profit by next year.
The latest director’s report and financial statement for the company showed the loss for 2009 amounted to £8,404,028.
A Grand Central spokesman said the loss would not affect future services in York, and the financial report was in line with expectations.
He said: “The loss relates to the start-up costs of our West Riding services to Bradford, as staff and rolling stock costs were incurred before they can go into profit.
“The loss last year was in relation to the start up of our north eastern services through York to Sunderland. They are now in profit.”
The spokesman said that the new service was as successful in the four months since its launch as the previous service was after eight months.
He said: “Our directors are comfortable with the numbers recorded because they are in line with expectations considering we are in line with costs. We are comfortable and confident that within 12 months the new West Riding service will be in profit.”
The report also confirmed that in the previous year, Grand Central had made a loss of just over £8.7 million, but the company said there would be no cost-cutting as a result of the latest figures.
“There will be no cost-saving drive as a result of this. Quality of service is our unique selling point which we believe sets us apart from the competition,” he said.
“We take a long view rather than a short view. We knew that we would need to up front monies to establish the new service so those numbers were expected.”
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