Network Rail’s Chief Executive has said he won’t be receiving a bonus this year.
Sir David Higgins said:
“I and my directors decided last week that we would forego any entitlement and instead allocate the money to the safety improvement fund for level crossings. I can confirm that remains our intention.”
A general meeting was meant to be held this Friday between the board of Network Rail and its members, but Network Rail said this has now been cancelled.
The government had expressed its opposition to the bonuses but said it did not have the power to block them being awarded.
Chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, said:
“Friday’s meeting was not to approve a specific annual bonus payment for Executive Directors, but rather to amend a previously approved long term incentive scheme to ensure additional external scrutiny of performance.
“The issue of annual performance payments would only arise if Network Rail surpassed stretching performance thresholds and would only be decided in May after the end of the financial year.”
