Taxpayer to be charged millions for rail strike
TAXPAYERS will face a multi-millionpound bill for strike action by staff on Scotland’s trains.
The public sector will pick up part of the cost for any downturn in revenues at privately owned ScotRail for the first time since Scotland’s trains were privatised in the early 1990s.
Abellio, the Dutch state-owned firm that operates ScotRail, has struck a deal with Network Rail, the quango responsible for managing tracks, which will see them share any losses.
That means periods of industrial action could land the taxpayer with a bill running to millions of pounds.
ScotRail conductors will hold their 11th day of strike action today.
It has also emerged that Network Rail has agreed to pick up half the cost of the salary of ScotRail’s managing director Phil Verster – who is receiving up to £360,000 a year.
Eben Wilson, director of the TaxpayerScotland pressure group, said: ‘The railway industry is famous for creating its own gravy trains with huge salaries, intercorporate cabals and other arrangements that stink.
‘The salary of the current managing director shows us just how fat a railway controller can be these days.’
Network Rail confirmed it has reached an agreement ‘in principle’ with Abellio to share ‘downside risk’ – which refers to profits being lower than expected or losses being higher.
The agreement means that Network Rail – a publicly owned company run at ‘arms length’ of the UK Government which invests all of its profits in Britain’s railways – could share any losses suffered by Abellio for anything from disruption caused by bad weather, industrial action and train faults to over-running maintenance work. South African Mr Verster, who became managing director of the ScotRail Alliance in May 2015 shortly after Abellio took over the ScotRail franchise, is paid a basic salary of up to £237,500.
He also receives performancerelated pay from Network Rail, which can see him earn up to 50 per cent of his salary, meaning his total pay can soar to nearly £360,000 a year.
The RMT union is locked in a battle with Mr Verster in protest at him considering putting drivers rather than conductors in control of train doors.
John Finnie, transport spokesman for the Scottish Greens, said: ‘Such eye-watering pay and bonus deals will be galling for passengers and frontline rail staff who have to deal with overcrowding on key services and the threat to safety from the driver-only operation policy. Scotland’s railways should be fully in public hands.’
A ScotRail Alliance spokesman said: ‘The ScotRail Alliance is a unique opportunity for the rail industry to redefine how we operate – delivering even better value for our passengers and funders.’