379 Tube staff earn £100,000-plus

The number of staff at Transport for London earning over £100,000 a year has increased to 379, new figures showed today.

The transport organisation said the increase followed the takeover of maintenance giant Tube Lines and an increase in staff earning six figures salaries at Crossrail, the multi billion pound project to build a new rail route through the capital.

A number of TfL employees also left in the last financial year with severance payments of over £100,000, according to the annual report and accounts today.

TfL said the "baseline number" of staff on six figure salaries last year was 196, two more than in the previous 12 months.

TfL pointed out that salaries of senior staff were frozen for the second year in a row in 2010/11 in recognition of the difficult economic climate.

Transport commissioner Peter Hendy, and all chief officers, declined their performance awards for 2009/10, the report showed.

Mr Hendy's salary was £330,000 and managing director Mike Brown was paid £283,000.

The annual report said a £7.6 billion savings and efficiency programme had been identified, with £4.6 billion achieved by 2017/18.

Despite an 8% reduction in its budget following the Government's spending review, TfL said "unprecedented" levels of investment had been maintained in upgrades, extensions and frontline services.

London's transport network is carrying record numbers of passengers, which are set to increase further, said the report.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and chairman of TfL, said: "Despite the toughest economic climate in decades, we have secured unprecedented levels of investment in London's transport network and there have been record numbers of passengers carried.

"It is absolutely imperative now that we continue in this vein, improving the reliability of our transport network and increasing capacity and I know that TfL staff are up for this challenge."

Rail, Maritime and Transport union leader Bob Crow said: "We will take no lectures on pay restraint and job cuts while the top layers of TfL are so clearly awash with cash. It is RMT members who are out there day in and day out delivering the success for the company and we expect them to have both the resources and the rewards that they deserve for transporting growing number of people around this City as the clock ticks down towards the London Olympics."