East Coast | Fat Loss Diary - all about fat loss! | Fat loss tips

Posts Tagged ‘East Coast’

‘Fat Cat’ rail bosses’ six-figure salaries revealed by FOI requests

The East Coast information supplied showed that one director – almost
certainly managing director Karen Boswell – was on a salary of between
£161,000 and £180,000.

Two other East Coast directors’ salaries came within the £121,000 to £140,000
band, while five other directors were on between £100,000 and £120,000 a
year.

Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s
astonishing that even now rail bosses continue to rake in such huge salaries
funded by taxpayers.

“Given that commuters are consistently forced to endure delays and misery on
the rail network, it’s galling that the fat cats in charge are in line for
bonuses for performance.

“With budgets tight the focus should be on improving infrastructure, not
executive pay packets.”

East Coast’s parent company is Directly Operated Railways (DOR), which was set
up in 2009 by the then transport secretary to manage any train company
operations which return, temporarily, to the public sector.

DOR took over East Coast in November 2009 when National Express pulled out of
the franchise.

Information obtained from DOR via the Department for Transport showed DOR
chief executive Michael Holden’s salary for the year ending March 2012 was
£156,100.

Information from CrossCountry covered the year 2011. It showed the highest
paid director – almost certainly managing director Andy Cooper – was on
£222,000 including pension contributions.

The company said it had 10 registered directors and their aggregate pay,
including benefits, was £795,000.

Pay level details are also available for rail infrastructure company Network
Rail (NR), which is currently striving to meet punctuality targets on
long-haul routes.

In the last few days rail passengers have endured some miserable travelling
conditions, with an overhead power line problem in Hertfordshire leading to
severe delays on busy commuter routes.

NR’s chief executive Sir David Higgins was on an annual basic salary of
£560,000 as of March 31 2012, while finance director Patrick Butcher was on
£382,000.

NR’s network operations chief Robin Gisby was on £360,000, as was
infrastructure director Simon Kirby.

In addition to their salaries, the NR chiefs stand to be paid
performance-related bonuses running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Transport for London’s (TfL) 2011/12 annual report showed that 30 of the
bosses of the cross-London £14.8 billion Crossrail project were on salaries
of more than £100,000.

These included chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme, who was on £380,000 when
he started his present job in September 2011. Crossrail is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of TfL.

The TfL report also reveals that in 2011/12, a total of 223 TfL staff were on
salaries of more than £100,000. These included London Mayor Boris Johnson’s
current aviation adviser Daniel Moylan who is a former TfL deputy chairman,
a position that gave him a salary of £112,599 in 2011/12.

Compared with train company boss pay levels, information is much more easily
obtained for the bosses of rail-operating transport companies which are
stock market-quoted.

These also indicate generous salary-and-bonus regimes as well as handsome
rail-business profits within an industry which still receives generous
subsidies from the Government.

Transport company FirstGroup runs five UK rail companies – First Capital
Connect, Great Western, Hull Trains, TransPennine Express and ScotRail.

In the year ending March 2012, FirstGroup made an operating profit of £110.5
million on its UK rail business, with its revenue being £2.5 billion.

Chief executive Tim O’Toole’s basic salary for 2012 was £846,000, plus a
£134,000 pension allowance and £75,000 for what was described as benefits in
kind.

FirstGroup’s commercial director Sidney Barrie, who resigned last March, was
on a salary of £349,000, while finance director Jeff Carr, who resigned in
November 2011, had been on £280,000.

Another giant transport company, National Express, runs the London to Tilbury
and Southend rail line c2c and also operated, until last February, the East
Anglia franchise.

For the year 2011, National Express’s revenue from its UK rail operations was
£688.3 million, while operating profit was £43.4 million.

The company’s chief executive Dean Finch is on an annual salary of £550,000,
and it was announced in August 2012 that he had been awarded an extra
performance-based bonus involving thousands of free shares.

National Express group finance director Jez Maiden is on £420,000 a year, with
chairman John Devaney, who is about to stand down, on £225,000.

Another rail industry parent company is the Go-Ahead Group which, with French
company Keolis, owns rail operator Govia which runs the London Midland,
Southern, Southeastern and Gatwick Express train companies.

London Midland has been plagued with staff shortage problems in recent months
and just before Christmas the Government announced the company would be
offering a £7 million compensation package including free travel days for
season ticket holders.

In the 12 months ending June 2012, Go-Ahead’s rail operation revenue was £1.73
billion and its operating profit was £40 million. Group chief executive
David Brown was on a salary of £510,000, with finance director Keith Down on
£326,000.

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: “One of the reasons
we have the highest rail fares in Europe is because we have created an army
of Fat Controllers since John Major sold off British Rail 20 years ago.

“Then we had one Fat Controller on a modest salary. Now we have dozens,
some of whom are paid over £1 million a year for running regional monopolies
at the expense of both the passenger and the taxpayer

“These people are laughing all the way to the bank while the rest of us
fund their private gravy train.”

Bob Crow, general secretary of transport union the RMT, said: “It’s
scandalous that the only train operator disclosing top bosses’ salaries is
the publicly-owned East Coast, while the private train companies hide behind
a veil of secrecy as they bleed passengers dry.

“You can bet your boots that the reason they want to lurk in the shadows
and hide behind the cloak of commercial confidentiality is because they are
milking it and they know there would be a public outcry. Compare that to the
cleaners on Arriva Trains Wales on basic minimum wage currently balloting
for action for a fair deal. That’s the shocking reality of the haves and
have-nots on Britain’s railways.”

Anthony Smith, chief executive of rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus,
said: “Our research shows that what is important to passengers is being
able to rely on their service to get them in on time, and that their ticket
is good value for money.

“Our national passenger survey clearly shows less than half of
passengers are satisfied with the value for money of their train tickets.”

Shadow transport minister Maria Eagle said: “Many commuters will be appalled
that as they face fare rises of up to 9.2% and taxpayers continue to fund
the rail industry to the tune of £4 billion every year, rail company bosses
are taking home these massive subsidised salaries.

“David Cameron’s broken promise to commuters to cap fare rises at one per cent
above inflation seems even hollower when it seems rail company bosses feel
no need for restraint when it comes to their own pockets.

“The Government should come clean with commuters that it was their decision to
cave in to pressure from the private train companies to let them hike ticket
prices beyond the so-called cap.

“A One Nation economy requires the spiralling cost of getting to work to be
brought under control. Labour would strictly enforce the fare cap on every
route and restore the ban on train companies imposing higher increases.”

Article source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9875652/Fat-Cat-rail-bosses-six-figure-salaries-revealed-by-FOI-requests.html

Share and Enjoy

Fat cat rail bosses of individual train companies earning up to £250,000 a year as rail fares soar

State-run East Coast line has up to eight directors on £100,000 salaries
Private train companies accused of hiding salaries ‘behind a veil of secrecy’

By
Ray Massey

PUBLISHED:

14:42 EST, 17 February 2013

|

UPDATED:

20:36 EST, 17 February 2013

Train company bosses are enjoying huge salaries at a time when six out of ten passengers are dissatisfied with their train company, damning new figures reveal today.

More than half of train firms received a customer satisfaction rating of 50per cent or less in the latest survey.

Yet at the state-run East Coast line, where services are being run directly by the Government, there are eight directors on salaries of more than £100,000 a year.

East Coast Trains is paid for by the taxpayer and has as many as eight directors on salaries above £100,000

The East Coast information supplied showed that one director – almost certainly managing director Karen Boswell – was on a salary of between £161,000 and £180,000.

Two directors’ salaries came within the £121,000 to £140,000 band, and five other directors were on between £100,000 and £120,000 a year.

Meanwhile, none of the 18 other train operating companies were prepared to reveal how many of their directors were on six-figure salaries – even though the railway industry receives around £5billion a year from the taxpayer.

Network Rail’s chief executive Sir David Higgins was on an annual basic salary of £560,000 as of March 31 last year

Critics accused them ‘hiding behind a veil of secrecy as they bleed passengers dry’.

Train
companies became the subject of fury earlier when passengers were hit
by above-inflation fare rises – despite the poor punctuality and ‘cattle
class’ travel conditions faced by many commuters.

The
latest research by Which? shows that only 1 in 5 (22per cent) of train
travellers feel their service is improving, despite the fare rises.

First
Capital Connect, which suffered severe disruption last week, was bottom
in the satisfaction league table of 19 rail companies with only 40per
cent of passengers satisfied with its service.

Passengers said the service’s commuter trains were consistently overcrowded and poor value for money.

Northern,
First Great Western, South Eastern and Greater Anglia railways all
fared poorly, with fewer than 45 per cent of passengers satisfied.

The results were compiled by Which? from responses from 7,500 regular train users.

Citing some of the feedback it received, Which? said: ‘One First Capital Connect customer told us: ‘The price has increased and the trains get more and more crowded. I never see any improvements for the extra money I am paying’.

‘And a Southeastern passenger said: ‘The prices are terrible, the service is bad and trains are often delayed, cancelled and dirty.’.

The survey also showed that 40per cent of train travellers are likely to cut the number of journeys following the recent inflation-busting price increases which have seen season tickets rise by an average of 4.2per cent but some fares soaring 10 per cent.

But a third of commuters said they did not have an alternative way of getting to work and ‘will just have to pay more’, says the report.

Overall, the report concluded, only 22 per cent of train users felt that things were ‘on the up.’

A spokesman for First Capital Connect rejected the findings – suggesting that some of the customers must have had an ‘axe to grind.’

‘This is questionable research which quizzed just 461 people online out of the 170,000 we carry every day,’ a spokesman said.

‘People chose to take part so many who did would have had an axe to grind.

Bob Crow, general secretary of RMT, said private rail companies were ‘scandalous’ for not disclosing salaries

‘A face-to-face survey by rail watchdog Passenger Focus which is audited by the Office for National Statistics that shows 81% of our passengers are satisfied or very satisfied with our service and 13% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.’

But last month’s Passenger Focus study also showed fewer than half Britain’s train travellers think the railways are giving value for money – dropping to under a third for the worst performing operators.

Pay levels for executives on the tax-payer backed East Coast were obtained following a request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

All other train companies insisted that they were not obliged to reply as the Freedom of Information Act did not apply to them as they were private companies.

Only one company, CrossCountry, was prepared to offer any pay-level details on a non-FOI request basis. Information from CrossCountry covered the year 2011. It showed the highest paid director – almost certainly managing director Andy Cooper – was on £222,000 including pension contributions.

Bosses at rail infrastructure company Network Rail (Network Rail), which is currently striving to meet punctuality targets on long-haul routes, are also enjoying fat cat salaries and packages with the lure of lucrative bonuses on top.

In the last few days rail passengers have endured some miserable travelling conditions, with an overhead power line problem in Hertfordshire leading to severe delays on busy commuter routes.

Network Rail’s chief executive Sir David Higgins was on an annual basic salary of £560,000 as of March 31 2012, while finance director Patrick Butcher was on £382,000.

Network operations chief Robin Gisby was on £360,000, as was infrastructure director Simon Kirby.

In addition to their salaries, the Network Rail chiefs stand to be paid performance-related bonuses running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The comments below have not been moderated.

Newest
Oldest
Best rated
Worst rated

Just another “noses in the trough” story to add to the hundreds of others! That’s the UK we’re used to it now!

-

Old Peculiar
,

Leicester, United Kingdom,
18/2/2013 02:41

Prices on the up, but not to fix the rail network, but to fill the pockets of directors who can’t do the job by the sound of it. N.W.O. by the sound of it as they try to stop the movement of the population.

-

Dredd
,

Hampshire, United Kingdom,
18/2/2013 02:21

What’s Bob Crowe’s salary?

-

Sumner
,

Kabul,
18/2/2013 02:05

Every single business that was state owned then sold to private sector has seen costs escalate, prices rising well over the rate of inflation each year, sky high bosses wages and bonus, service go down the drain, then most sold for vast profits to overseas investors. And by selling these governments told us, prices would come down?. The biggest rip off of all time. The second biggest rip off was getting rid of the old borough councils which had plenty of money in reserve until the new larger ones squandered it all. Bigger is better and more cost effective we were told, NO it dam well wasn’t. We were told the new NHS reforms will give better patient care, oh yer?, from the past weeks headlines, again the opposite has happened. What has governments ever got right?, er, i know, making lodsa money for themselves at the taxpayers expense.

-

Alan
,

Huddersfield,
18/2/2013 01:51

So why does the media criticise the rail workers for wanting decent salaries, when these fatcat bosses have their snouts well and truly in the trough?

-

joannie
,

London,
18/2/2013 01:33

I thought East Coast was sort of nationalised as it is run by the government.

-

anon
,

g-town,
18/2/2013 01:18

The government is losing hundreds of millions of pounds a year while the East Coast route is being publicly run. The train operating companies pay the government BILLIONS for their franchises. As for re-nationalising, the East Coast route has one of the worst performance records of the lot of them over the last couple of years. So the re-nationalised rail company is not only losing the government money but it has one of the worst performance records. Re-privatise it ASAP!

-

John S
,

Bromley, United Kingdom,
18/2/2013 01:11

So Rail bosses, NHS bosses, Judges, MP’s, Civil Servants, is their anyone that isn’t taking the TAX PAYER for a ride?

-

CDTI
,

LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom,
18/2/2013 00:47

They get a bonus for failure. It’s a National disease for our elite.

-

Yorkscot
,

Glasgow, United Kingdom,
18/2/2013 00:33

The civil servants running the East Coast must be pretty junior ones if they are only being paid £100K. If one is being paid £250K, it’s still around £50K off the top of the scale. Mind you, even at the maximum, they would be paid less than a fifth of the salary of the DM’s ‘ead ‘itter. Maybe the DM should publish the salaries of their highest earners in tomorrow’s edition.

-

John S
,

Bromley, United Kingdom,
18/2/2013 00:32

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Article source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280161/Fat-cat-rail-bosses-individual-train-companies-earning-250-000-year-rail-fares-soar.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Share and Enjoy

rail bosses’ six-figure salaries revealed by FOI requests