Network Rail boss will not take bonus after King's Cross station disruption

 
Delays: passengers wait for information at King's Cross (Picture: PA)
Standard Reporter30 December 2014

The chief executive of Network Rail Mark Carne is not taking a bonus this year.

Mr Carne has faced criticism after late-running Christmas engineering work led to the closure of King's Cross station last Saturday, causing chaotic scenes.

The rail boss could have received as much as £135,000 in a performance-related annual pay bonus for 2014/15. But he told Sky News today that he would not be taking it.

The work at King's Cross is part of a huge engineering programme that Network Rail is undertaking during this festive period.

Engineering works: railway staff on the line outside King's Cross (Picture: PA)

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has described the Saturday over-run as "totally unacceptable" while the Office of Rail Regulation and NR have launched inquiries.

Mr Carne said today that there was "never a good time" to do engineering work and the project at King's Cross "didn't work out in a satisfactory way."

He is on a salary of £675,000 and, depending on his company's performance, could have been entitled to an annual bonus of up to 20% of this.

Congestion: travellers queue outside Finsbury Park station after trains from Kings Cross were cancelled (Picture: PA)

Yesterday he said he would probably be entitled to only around 5% but he refused to say whether he would be taking any bonus, despite being repeatedly pressed on the matter.

The engineering over-run and the row over bonuses has come at a time when rail passengers have endured almost constant morning rush-hour delays on busy commuter routes during the late-autumn and early-winter period.

There were further hold-ups today on mainline services and on London Underground, with both East Coast and West Coast routes hit by delays.

On Friday, mainline season tickets rise by up to 2.5%, while Tube fares are also going up by more than 2%.

Mr Carne said today: "I am accountable for the railways and the performance (over Christmas) was not acceptable so I have decided that I should not take my bonus this year."

He added that when he took over he recognised that the railways faced "enormous challenges" and that he had seen since that these challenges remained.

Other top executives at NR are also entitled to annual performance-related bonuses of up to 20% of salaries.

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: "We welcome this decision by Mark Carne but, like many of his trains, it is running late - 72 hours late in this case.

"He should have announced it on Sunday when it became clear of the level of chaos suffered by tens of thousands of passengers caught up in the King's Cross shutdown.

"We hope that his fellow executives will now follow suit and announce they will also be giving up their large bonuses as well."

Yesterday, shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher wrote to Mr Carne urging bonus restraint.

Today Mr Dugher tweeted: "Following my letter yesterday, welcome NR boss won't take bonus. But time ministers acknowledged their responsibilities for rail chaos too."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT