SIR RICHARD Branson is cock-a-hoop with his east coast train service which has carried more than a million people this year – a record for the privatised franchise.

The operator said it has seen an eight per cent growth on the route, which means that even more cash will have flooded in to the Virgin coffers this year. There is little doubt that Mr Branson is a skilled operator when it comes to making money, but how good is his company at delighting its customers on the railway?

Before Virgin/Stagecoach was handed the route, the state-run line returned a little more than £1bn in premiums, as well as several million in profits, to the Treasury, as well as scoring highly in passenger surveys. By taking the East Coast out of public ownership, the Government passed the profits to Stagecoach and Virgin shareholders, instead of using the cash to reduce rail fares and improve services.

Virgin’s East Coast services are now among the most complained about in the country. Passengers’ biggest bugbears with Mr Branson’s company are the quality of facilities on board, such as the toilets. In fairness to Virgin, it often performs well when compared to other long distance operators in terms of its punctuality, and also scores highly in the industry watchdog’s Transport Focus survey.

Where Virgin really lets down its passengers is in the cost of its tickets and the quality of its trains, which on average are more than 30 years old. It will be at least a year until new rolling stock made at the Hitachi factory in Newton Aycliffe starts to replace Virgin’s tired old carriages. We may be travelling on trains built when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister but we are paying 2016 prices for the privilege – and those prices are set for yet another hike next week when the latest fare increases are announced. Whatever the outlook for passengers, it looks like 2017 will be another profitable year for Mr Branson.