Pay of Southern rail boss almost doubles
THE salary paid to the boss of Southern rail has almost doubled to nearly £500,000 in a year of strike chaos and delays.
Charles Horton’s pay went from £263,000 in the firm’s 2015 financial year to £478,000 in the year to July 2, 2016, despite parent company Govia Thameslink losing more than £15 million. Mr Horton also appears to have received £17,000 from old Southern rail entity Southern Railway Limited, bringing his annual total to £495,000.
The rise was labelled “absolutely outrageous” by Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, whose constituency is served by the operator.
Nearly a third of Southern’s services were late last year, causing misery for more than 300,000 passengers. A long-
running dispute over the role of conductors on trains has seen official and unofficial strike action.
Mr Brake, who has started a campaign to “sack” Southern and have the service run by Transport for London, added: “Passengers have suffered more than two years of constant disruption on Southern services. It is impossible to see how any increase at all is justified for Mr Horton or any other senior manager within Southern.”
Stephen Trigg, chairman of the Reigate, Redhill and District Rail Users Association, said: “I don’t think he’s worth it. I don’t think any rail user thinks he’s worth it. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s been very negative about improving the rail service.”
Southern has been dogged by disputes over which staff members should close train doors. Govia wants to make drivers responsible for closing doors and make guards “on board supervisors” who deal with passenger queries.
The company said yesterday it ran 95 per cent of train services during the last strike, which took place on Saturday – the 31st stoppage since the start of the row a year ago.
Go-Ahead, Govia’s parent company, said last month it could lose £15 million from the dispute with the RMT Union.
David Brown, the chief executive of Go-Ahead, said roughly 40 per cent of Southern trains operate with drivers controlling the doors.
A report by Ian Prosser, HM Chief Inspector of Railways, concluded that driver-only operated trains were a “safe method of working”. But the RMT dismissed the report as a “whitewash”.
A Govia spokesman said: “As a matter of policy we do not discuss the remuneration of any of our employees.”