MERSEYRAIL has made record pre-tax profits of £9m, the Daily Post can reveal.
The rail operator boosted its coffers in 2008 thanks to Capital of Culture year when passenger numbers and revenue both surged upwards.
But company chiefs are warning they may still make cutbacks and redundancies if they cannot raise ticket prices next year.
Any ticket increases are based on the Retail Price Index taken in July and that is looking likely to be in negative territory.
Profits of £6.5m after tax were made in 2008 and paid to Merseyrail owners Serco and NV Nederlands – the latter company based in Holland.
The same thing happened in 2007 when another £6m in profits gleaned from rail commuters was fed back to the shareholding companies.
Meanwhile, as of January 3, 2009, the company pension scheme showed a deficit of £5.6m
Revenue in 2008 leapt by 10% to £127m as Capital of Culture proved a massive bonus for the rail network operator.
