[Article] Luas operator posts €2.3m profit despite lower turnover

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...282143210.html

Luas operator posts €2.3m profit despite lower turnover
UNA McCAFFREY

LUAS OPERATOR Veolia booked a €2.3 million pretax profit last year and paid a €3.3 million dividend to its holding company parent.

Accounts for Veolia Transport Dublin Light Rail show turnover dropped by 1.6 per cent to €39.7 million in 2009, while profits climbed by 4.5 per cent.

The accounts, just filed to the companies office, show the lower turnover was linked to “decreased activity”, while the slight climb in profits was attributed to “increased activity and monitoring of costs”. The company, which is charged by the Railway Procurement Agency with operating Dublin’s two Luas lines, paid €3.3 million in a dividend to its Dublin-based parent Veolia Transport Ireland Limited during 2009. A further dividend of €1.9 million was approved this summer, after the balance sheet date.

Shareholders’ funds amounted to slightly more than €4 million at the end of the year, down from €5.3 million 12 months earlier and reflecting the 2009 dividend payment.

The accounts show that the company’s parent Veolia Transport Ireland owed it €3.6 million at the end of the year, down from €6.5 million in 2008.

Veolia Transport Ireland, a holding company, is ultimately owned by Veolia Environment, a French multinational. The holding company purchased the Luas operator from another Veolia company at the end of 2008 for €24 million.

Veolia operates the Luas on behalf of the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) and turnover in the accounts reflects invoices paid by the agency in respect of the company’s services.

Veolia Transport Dublin Light Rail employed 226 people last year, 200 of whom worked on the operations side of the business. In 2008, the company had 221 staff. Staff costs also rose, climbing from €9.9 million to €10.7 million.

RPA figures show that commuters using the Luas fell by 8 per cent last year, after strong annual growth since the system launched in 2004.

A total of 25.4 million trips were taken in 2009, down from 27.4 million in 2008.

At the launch of the Luas Green Line extension earlier this month, RPA chief executive Frank Allen indicated that passenger numbers had picked up over recent months.