Southeastern pension fund liabilities on the line | Business

The government’s sacking this week of Go-Ahead from Southeastern over the failure to repay £25 million of subsidies, has left the taxpayer with a much larger bill: a £675 million hole in the rail network’s pension fund whose liabilities the Treasury must now take on.

Analysis of Southeastern’s most recent accounts shows a pension scheme for its present, past and retired employees with liabilities of £1.56 billion. The scheme has assets of only £887 million leaving a deficit of £675 million.

After an excoriating attack on Go-Ahead by Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, over breaches of faith, trust and legal obligations, there are questions over whether it will retain its other big London commuter network, GTR, which operates the Thameslink and Southern services. That