Its nowhere near as simple sadly. No one really knows a what a pensions liability will be, you don't know how long people will live, you don't know what contributions are needed to maintain given inflation, what inflation will do, how the economy will fare, how successful any related funds will be. Staff probably need to contribute more to the pots or the companies do, if staff are asked to increase contributions the unions wont be pleased. There is a deficit as recognised by the pensions watchdog and something needs to be done. The government are kicking the can. This is the kind of approach Abellio have taken to win EMT, its a big risk, it may pay off as long as the pension regulator doesn't demand a large top up payment soon.
This is the reason for the legal action and why it hasn't been kicked out of court, because they are valid concerns that need to be addressed before someone end up in a mess. We already have tonnes of reckless companies going into administration and causing loss of pensions for hard working staff, we don't need more.
There's always going to be risk takers and fag packet accountants out there we don't want them running our railways.
