The company behind the Northern Rail fiasco paid its boss an extra £256,000 while it cancelled thousands of services last year.
Arriva, which owns Northern Rail, handed its CEO a total of £1.338million, up from £1.082million in 2017.
And the total pay of directors rose to £2.051million in 2018 from £1.802million.
Meanwhile 165 services a day to areas including Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool and the Lake District were removed with an “interim” timetable in June and July last year.
And travellers endured unreliable, overcrowded commuter trains and chaotic Sundays.
Concern over Northern Rail grew so severe that Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram both called for it to be stripped of its franchise.
Reacting to the big pay rises given to Arriva chief Dr Manfred Rudhart and other bosses, Mr Burnham said: “This will stick in passengers’ throats.
“The company has failed to provide a good service but is rewarding its top bosses with lavish salaries. It shows how broken our rail system is.”
Mr Burnham also blasted the fact that £92million was taken out of Arriva and given to its German shareholders, Deutsche Bahn.
He added: “The franchising system allows a foreign-owned company to siphon money from our railways whilst failing to do what they were contracted to.”
Deutsche Bahn, which announced plans to sell Arriva to plug a cashflow crisis, took dividends of £44.66million and £47.5million that could have gone back into services.
German Dr Rudhart, 53, who lives near Frankfurt, was appointed by Deutsche Bahn after it bought Arriva in 2010.
Following last year’s time-tabling disaster it emerged that “catastrophic mismanagement” had led to Arriva becoming locked into crisis talks with the Department for Transport, with a taxpayer bailout soaring to £282million.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association has warned Northern Rail is likely to go bust, with general secretary Manuel Cortes urging the Government to “put passengers first” and bring it back into public ownership.
Arriva said it was “constantly” trying to improve services, adding that the 2018 payout was the first since 2010.
