The bosses of Britain’s biggest rail firms are raking in over £1million in pay and bonuses as passengers suffer from disruptions.
Figures show that a staggering 319,550 services were hit by cancellations in the last 12 months.
One of the worst offenders was Avanti West Coast, which operates services between London and destinations including Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow. It had a total of 16,049 cancellations in the 12 months to March, which was more than 8% of services.
The operator is owned by First Group, which paid its Chief Executive Graham Sutherland £1.2million in salary and bonuses.
CrossCountry had a total of 9,125 cancellations, which is a new record for the firm. That worked out at more than 11% of services. The operator offers services from Cornwall, the South Coast, the Midlands and South Wales to the north of England and Scotland. It is owned by Arriva where Chief Executive Mike Cooper earned almost £1.1million in pay and bonuses.
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Avanti last year was awarded a new contract that will see it run the line for up to nine more years. At the same time, CrossCountry had its agreement extended for up to eight more years.
A First Group spokesman: “Last year we saw strong financial performance, due to growth in First Bus and in our open access rail companies Hull Trains and Lumo. We paid around £2billion in wages to our 30,000 people nationwide, of which Avanti is just one part.”
CrossCountry did not respond to a request for comment.
It comes as the Tories have lowered performance targets for train firms. Labour accused ministers of “rigging the rules” to help fat cat bosses as the party prepares to set out details of its plan to renationalise the railways.
At least eight other operators have had their service standards lowered making it easier for them to meet targets they had previously failed to. Govia Thameslink, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, c2c, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and West Midlands Railway saw targets on some key measures lowered, as they took millions in bonus payments from the Government.
Teams of independent inspectors visit railway stations across the country and make journeys by train giving scores every four weeks on things including cleanliness and the helpfulness of staff.
CrossCountry was not meeting its target scores of 63% for ambience and assets, which includes lighting and availability of toilets, 79% for cleanliness and 89% for information, including announcements and station screens. All three were lowered in October to 60%, 65% and 70% respectively.
Chiltern Railways, which is also owned by Arriva and operates services between London Marylebone and Birmingham, failed to meet its target score of 88% for ticketing and staffing at stations in the first few months of 2023. It was lowered to 86%, which it has met in most of the four week periods since.
South Western Railway, which is part owned by First Group, had its target for ticketing and staffing at stations lowered from 95% to 93%.
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