SIGNAL FAILURES
Open excess
FIRSTGROUP has revealed its Lumo firm, which runs “open-access” trains on the east-coast mainline, made a stunning 39 percent operating profit last year. Labour ministers apparently can’t decide if they want more or less of that.
Keir Starmer and transport secretary Heidi Alexander stole the limelight at Hitachi’s train-assembly plant near Darlington on 6 December, claiming they’d “helped secure a deal” for 14 new trains that protects hundreds of jobs. But the rolling stock is for open-access services – which operate without government franchise contracts, instead hiring space on the network to run trains – to keep FirstGroup on the rails after its ex-franchises are nationalised.