Trainline boss pay hits the buffers after missing bonuses
Trainline boss Jody Ford has seen his pay packet go off the rails in what will likely be his last year in the job, almost halving to £2.5m.
Chief executive Jody Ford’s total pay packet fell by 44 per cent from £4.5m in the firm’s 2026 financial year, after he and executive director Peter Wood missed out on a host of performance-related bonuses.
Ford announced in February that he would be disembarking from his role at the train booking platform after six years in post. He said he would stay in his role until a replacement is found.
But the Trainline boss looks to be ending his tenure on a sour note, after he missed out on nearly £1m in performance bonuses.
Ford could have been handed up to 250 per cent of his salary in bonuses if the firm met three targets, on net ticket sales, revenue and earnings.
Ford misses out on £1m in bonuses
The chief executive’s base salary was hiked by four per cent to £728,000 for this year, meaning he could have made £1.8m in bonuses.
But the company met only 44.5 per cent of the total 75 per cent progress possible on these targets, meaning Ford was handed an £870,413 bonus – £949,587 lower than it could have been.
The firm performed worst on its ticket sales target, notching £6.31m to only just beat the £6.3m target and miss the £6.5m maximum.
This compares to last year, when the firm met 70 per cent out of the total 75 per cent available progress to these performance goals.
This brought Ford’s total salary to £4.5m, including £833,000 in shares and £40,000 in pension.
Wood’s pay packet also fell, by 36 per cent to £1.6m.
Labour ‘must ensure open rail market’
In its financial report, chair Brian McBride also hit out at the government’s push to nationalise the railways, commenting on Labour’s establishment of state rail company Great British Railways (GBR).
The government’s consultation report on GBR “reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to a fair, open and competitive retail market,” he said.
But McBride warned: “Trainline maintains its assertive stance with the government to ensure that they meet their commitments to a fair, open and competitive retail market, particularly around the development of its new code of practice.”
In its latest results, the FTSE 250 firm posted an eight per cent jump in net ticket sales with revenue rising two per cent to £235m for the six months to end August 2025.
Trainline traded up one per cent on Friday, to 221p, leaving the stock up nearly three per cent in the year to date.
Trainline have been approached for comment.