UK NEWS

BOSSES IN RAIL CHAOS TO GET HUGE BONUSES

COUCHER: £300,000 reward

Saturday June 7,2008

By Polly Buchanan

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(5)

RAIL bosses were last night urged to give back their six-figure bonuses.

The handouts were revealed a day after regulators admitted passengers face six more years of weekend disruption.

Network Rail confirmed its three top directors are to get performance-related annual bonuses of more than £200,000.
Chief executive Iain Coucher will get £305,581.

This is despite the New Year meltdown on the railways because of engineering overruns.

Under a long-term incentive plan, the top three will also be paid further bonuses of more than £153,000, with Mr Coucher receiving £205,000. All NR staff will get an annual bonus of at least £871 in a payout totalling £55million – about twice last year’s amount.

The company yesterday announced an after-tax profit of £1.2billion last year.

But the net debt for the firm, which has no shareholders, rose from £18.4billion in 2006/07 to £19.7billion in 2007/08.
Watchdog groups accused the firm of providing a “patchy” service, while MPs called for NR chiefs to follow the example of British Airways boss Willie Walsh and turn the bonus down.

Gerry Doherty, of transport union TSSA, also urged Mr Coucher to “give up his giant bonus after a winter of travel misery for hundreds of thousands of passengers on the West Coast line”.

He added: “Passengers will simply not understand why he is being rewarded for failure on this scale after all they have suffered.

“He and the other directors should donate this money to charity and promise only to take performance bonuses in the future when they are delivering an effective seven-day-a-week service.” Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers said: “I am astounded at the size of the bonuses.

“This is a taxpayer-funded company and it is simply not acceptable for the huge failure at the New Year to be rewarded.”

On Thursday, the Office of Rail Regulation – which tried to intervene in the bonus process by pointing out NR failures to the company’s remuneration committee – warned of up to six more years of weekend disruption.

The regulators have already fined NR a record £14million for the New Year overruns which hit the West Coast Mail Line worst.

Last night NR chairman Ian McAllister said: “Overall, the last year has been a good one with passengers seeing a better service. Train performance is at an all-time high.”

DOESN'T IT JUST?

08.06.08, 3:25am

Make you puke!

• Posted by: kojak • Report Comment

WHY IS IT ....

07.06.08, 4:46pm

If you are at the top, you get bonuses, expenses, perk upon perk, however if you are Joe average you get screwed to the deck.

Pigs and troughs spring to mind........

Well done Gordon (disaster) Brown.....

• Posted by: Eltorro • Report Comment

MAGGIE'S CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!

07.06.08, 2:22pm

Maggie's chickens have now come home to roost and the pathetic, immoral NuLabour has jumped on the band wagon to loot the public.

All the politicians of every colour presently in the Parliament are only interested in lining their pockets and if there are some who may be honest, they seem to have no stomach to challenge the majority of these corrupt idiots in the House of Conmen.

Every Executive in this country, who can fleece the public should be given title of "Sir" as for every pound extra profit they generate, this crook government gets a major slice of the ill-gotten gain from the public.

When these politicians leave politics, they and their family will be well looked after these Executives for eternity!

• Posted by: Nalin • Report Comment

AND ANOTHER THING..

07.06.08, 2:19pm

Its no wonder the unions are getting the hump.

• Posted by: stevewo • Report Comment

A SUCCESS?

07.06.08, 2:17pm

How can anyone say that an organisation with debts of almost twenty billion pounds is a success?
All these guys have got to do is just keep on turning up for work and they'll get a million each next year.
Its the old "pigs and troughs" stuff again, but its getting worse, while the rest of us are in for a rough time.

• Posted by: stevewo • Report Comment