CITY speculators have secretly creamed off £200 million from passengers, rail union RMT claimed yesterday.

Twelve per cent of money spent on train tickets is used to pay to lease rolling stock from three major firms, all of which are owned by investment giants.

RMT said these companies were paid £1.4 billion in 2015-16, but only faced costs of £1.2bn — leaving them with a 16.7 per cent profit margin.

The figures are likely to anger passengers who only received news of another fare rise earlier this week.

The union said the market for leasing trains amounts to “a highly secretive, government-sponsored racket.”

One owner, Angel Trains, is owned by a consortium of infrastructure and pensions investors including AMP Capital Investors and Canadian PSP Investments.

Another firm, Porterbrook, is owned by a consortium including Germany’s Allianz Capital Partners, Australian asset manager Hastings, Canada’s Alberta Investment Management Corporation and EDF Invest.

The third company, Eversholt Rail Group is owned by two companies linked to Li Ka-shing, one of Asia’s richest men.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “When RMT talks about public ownership we mean sweeping all these speculators off our railways and reinvesting the fat sums they are pocketing back into services.

“If we took this mob out of the equation we could cut fares, keep the guards and invest in the upgrade works that our railways are crying out for.”