Rail fat cats ride the gravy train...

...but it’s delays and fare rises for customers

‘First-class rewards for railway bosses’ ‘Executives need to be responsible’

FAT cat rail bosses are in line to receive multi-million-pound pay packages this year just as passengers face fare hikes and delayed trains.

An investigation by the Mail reveals some individual UK rail executives could earn as much as £5.4million, despite a year plagued by engineering works, poor service and the worst strike disruption in decades.

Some rail operators, including those in Scotland, have been plagued by delays, fare increases and record numbers of complaints, while in other parts of the UK, travellers have been hit by disruption caused by strike action.

Yet despite this, the bosses that run Britain’s biggest rail franchises are set to earn huge seven-figure packages that will infuriate long-suffering commuters.

Rail bosses expected to receive pay rises this year include Roger Van Boxtel, chief executive of Nederlandse Spoorwegen – parent company of Abellio, which owns the ScotRail franchise.

ScotRail has been dogged by a growing number of complaints since Abellio took on the franchise in 2015, with more than 22,000 lodged about Scot- land’s trains during 2016 alone.

Last February it emerged that ScotRail was paying £2,000 a day in compensation to angry passengers who have experienced long delays. It was forced to pay £587,527 to commuters from April to December 2016 following a troubled year beset by cancellations and overcrowding.

Details of Mr Van Boxtel’s current salary are not available but his total package – limited by the company’s remuneration scheme pay – rose by 15 per cent to £389,511 between 2015 and 2016, .

Also expected to enjoy a significant pay increase is Martin Griffiths, chief executive of Stagecoach, which part owns Virgin Trains East Coast and Virgin Trains West Coast.

Mr Griffiths is expected to be paid around £1.67million, although this figure could rise to a maximum of £2.52million if performance targets are met. In 2016-17, Mr Griffiths was paid £1.3million.

Virgin Trains East Coast, which operates services from Inverness and Aberdeen to London via Edinburgh, was earlier this year named the train company with the highest percentage of significant delays, with 3.65 per cent of passenger journeys delayed between 30 minutes and two hours.

It was followed by Virgin Trains West Coast, at 1.95 per cent. It runs trains from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London.

Rupert Soames, chief executive of Serco, which owns the Caledonian Sleeper franchise, is expected to see his pay, bonuses, pension and benefits increase from £2.1million to around £2.9million.

Network Rail, which manages Scotland’s rail infrastructure, is expected to increase the financial package paid to its chief executive, Mark Carne, to around £841,000 from £820,000 last year.

Tim O’Toole, chief executive of Aberdeen-based First Group, received an annual package of £1.26million in 2016-17 including a basic salary of £846,000. He got no bonus but his pay has still surged by more than a fifth since earning £1million in 2011.

Last night, MPs and campaigners called for action to rein in the pay packages of rail bosses and curb fare rises for passengers.

Steve Double, Tory member of the commons Transport committee, said: ‘Ultimately the issue on executive pay is down to share- holders. But I would expect some restraint in light of the current situation in terms of fare rises. These executives need to be responsible and their pay needs to reflect the service they are delivering.’

Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, said it was ‘first class rewards all the way for railway bosses’, while travellers had to endure ‘extortionate’ fare rises.

Fellow committee member and Labour MP Wes Streeting said: ‘Commuters facing eye-watering fare hikes in the New Year will be less than impressed by the fat cat salaries paid to rail bosses.’

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, said: ‘The people mentioned here are running big and complex companies which operate across the globe, creating tens of thousands of British jobs.’