Rail bosses’ £1.3m flights bill – because it’s cheaper than the train

RAIL bosses spent £1.3million on UK flights in the last two years because it was cheaper than taking the train, Network Rail have admitted.

Planes were chosen because staff ‘are obliged to use the cheapest method available’, the partially taxpayer-funded firm said.

Critics accused bosses of ‘jetting around in the lap of luxury’, while passenger watchdog Transport Focus said it was ‘no surprise’, because unless you ‘book weeks in advance, rail can be prohibitively expensive’.

Senior staff at Network Rail took 8,353 domestic flights between April 2013 and March 2015 – nine out of ten of which were to Scotland.

They also spent £1.1million on 2,907 international flights, with staff allowed to travel in business class on any flight longer than five hours, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Topping the list was former operations managing director Robin Gisby,

‘Prohibitively expensive’

who spent £2,250 on 15 UK flights, and £4,430 on an international flight.

Above-inflation hikes in the price of train tickets over the years and the rise of budget airlines mean flights are often the most economical way to travel around the UK. Average rail fares have risen 2.2 per cent this year, with firms planning a series of hikes of up to 87 per cent after the General Election.

A Network Rail spokesman said: ‘If employees have to attend a 10am business meeting in Scotland it is to cheaper to fly up than take the train the night before and have to pay for overnight accommodation.’

He added that ‘for the majority of staff travel rail is much the better way to go’, with £32million spent on rail travel over the same period.

RMT rail union general secretary Mick Cash said: ‘Rail staff ... will be disgusted to see the sums spent on luxury flights by their bosses at a time when engineers and signallers are fighting for a fair pay rise.’