National Express secures £15 million taxpayer bail-out for C2C rail franchise

RAIL UNION RMT reacted with fury today after it emerged that the first of the emergency franchise extensions to be confirmed after the collapse of the West Coast competition last year is set to cost taxpayers almost £15 million. National Express operator c2c had been paying premiums of more than £12 million a year, but now it's to receive a subsidy of nearly £2.5 million instead - amounting to what is effectively a taxpayer bail-out of nearly £15 million.