Outrage as rail bosses take flights instead of trains
A rail campaigner has described news of rail bosses taking flights rather than travelling by rail due to costs as outrageous.
Steve Boulding, a West Midlands committee member for Rail Future, said that bosses from Network Rail should be supporting their own system to travel and were betraying their own industry by flying instead of taking the train.
His comments follow a report by a national newspaper which revealed that bosses at the rail operator spent £10,000 a week on plane tickets last year, with figures showing that staff bought 955 plane tickets for flights within the UK, and 1,622 on international journeys.
The figures, which came from an Freedom of Information request, showed that 72 of the internal flights taken by Network Rail staff were between Birmingham and Glasgow, a trip serviced by a direct line and with train fares which could cost as much as £206 for a one-way ticket.
The figures and details follow a 5.9 per cent price rise for tickets back in March, meaning that ticket prices are around five times more expensive than they were in 1987.
Mr Boulding said rail officials should be afforded the courtesy of complimentary travel and that Network Rail was not doing enough to support it staff and service.
