Southern boss's pay rises to £495,000 despite transport 'chaos'

The boss of Southern rail was paid almost half a million pounds last year despite the "travel chaos" on the network, reports The Independent.

Chief executive Charles Horton received £478,000 from Southern's parent company Govia Thameslink and an additional £17,000 from Southern Railway Ltd, a "former division of the group", says The Guardian.

The previous year, he was paid a total of £493,000.

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Horton's £5,000 pay rise comes after David Brown, the chief executive of Go-Ahead, which owns two-thirds of Govia, "refused an annual bonus and pay increase in September given the disruption on the network".

Rolling strikes over the past year in response to Southern's plans to increase the number of driver-only trains severely impacted reliability, with less than half of trains arriving on time in January.

Unions have still not agreed a solution with bosses, but strike action is currently having a less severe effect.

Southern also posted losses of more than £15m on revenues of £1.1bn, according to its results for the year ended July 2016.

A spokesman for Govia Thameslink, which also owns Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express, said: "As a matter of policy we do not discuss the remuneration of any of our employees."