15 TfL managers earn more than PM

The Standard has learned that 163 TfL officials were paid six-figure salaries in 2008/9 - 40 more than the previous year.

The figure will be contained in the organisation's annual report, to be published on Tuesday.

When staff at Metronet and Crossrail - also now part of TfL - are included, the number of six-figure-earners rises to 231, almost double what it was two years ago.

TfL's top earner last year - Commissioner Peter Hendy - collected a base salary and bonus of £494,884, or £9,500 a week.

This is more than twice as much as the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, and almost four times as much as the Mayor. Mr Hendy's bonus alone was £146,440, more than the Mayor's entire salary.

Freedom of Information requests by the Evening Standard established that 15 TfL managers, including the director of marketing, earn more than the Prime Minister.

Of the 46 most highly paid officials, only 16 are directly involved in operating services.

The number of TfL staff earning over £50,000 has also risen from 1,954 to 2,565 in a year. When Metronet and Crossrail are included, the number of £50,000 earners goes up to 4,204, a seventh of the workforce.

The new figures are likely to prove highly embarrassing as TfL fights a damaging pay dispute with Tube drivers, which led to the strike last week.

Even TfL's 2007/8 total of big earners was condemned as "excessive". That year the Treasury, responsible for the entire UK economy, employed only 15 staff on salaries of £100,000 or above.

TfL today blamed an above-inflation pay deal agreed by the previous Mayor, Ken Livingstone, for the dramatic rises and said that the salaries of Mr Hendy and other top managers had been frozen in the current financial year.

Their bonus pot has also been reduced. Several hundred TfL staff are affected by the freeze.

Mr Johnson said: "In these tough economic times, it is right to freeze the salaries of TfL's management and reduce bonus levels."

But he defended the rises of previous years, saying: "It is also right that TfL has the calibre of people needed to deliver a huge work programme, including upgrading the Tube and building Crossrail."

TfL said that the number of six-figure earners represented only 0.8 per cent of its 28,000 workforce and insisted that top salaries at the organisation had to compete with those paid at private-sector transport companies such as Stagecoach and First Group.

Mr Hendy said: "We continue to seek efficiencies across the organisation. It is vital we have an experienced and capable management team to deliver that."

TfL has said it is committed to finding £2.4billion of savings over the next nine years.

The target has caused clashes with the workforce, with Tube unions claiming that up to 3,000 jobs could be axed and demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.