AN ITALIAN train operator running rail services in England was accused today of trying to push the taxpayer into a £20 million bailout for its troubled Essex and east London franchise.

Transport union RMT accused Trenitalia of blackmailing the government into coughing up the cash to prop up its running of the C2C routes after its own predictions of economic growth for 2019 proved to be wrong.

The company is seeking to recover the amount in ongoing talks with the Department for Transport (DfT), threatening to quit its services, which run from Shoeburyness in the east into the capital’s Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street stations.