Train boss bonuses 'extraordinary'

2:13am Tuesday 22nd July 2008

It was "quite extraordinary" for rail bosses to get huge bonuses after passengers had been "humiliated and inconvenienced" by three major engineering overruns at the new year, a report by MPs said.

The Network Rail (NR) overruns, including one on the busy West Coast Main Line, had "laid bare an entire catalogue of management failings for all to see", the House of Commons Transport Committee added.

NR's top three directors are to get annual bonuses in excess of £200,000 each, with chief executive Iain Coucher receiving £305,000.

The transport committee said that rewarding senior managers with "huge financial bonuses...is a gesture which adds insult to injury for the long-suffering passengers who had to struggle with the consequences of the company's failings".

Thousands of rail passengers were delayed by the engineering overruns at Rugby on the West Coast line, at Liverpool Street station in London and at Glasgow Shields Junction.

The report said the management of the three projects indicated there were "serious deficiencies in terms of central control and internal oversight mechanisms within NR". The overruns were "quite simply unacceptable".

The MPs were also critical of NR chairman Sir Ian McAllister who had said he had not gone during the overrun crisis as he felt he would only get in the way.

The report said: "We fear that the lack of a sense of urgency manifested by the NR chairman over the new year period, as well as when he appeared before us, is symptomatic of widespread complacency within NR."

MPs said communication within NR and between it and the train companies was "seriously deficient" and this had serious consequences for passengers.

The committee also said it was "deeply concerned that the rapid shift away from taxpayer contributions and towards passengers paying a significantly larger share of the cost of running the railways will be detrimental to passengers and future of the railways alike". Such a shift should be introduced over a "significantly longer" period of time than planned.

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