The rail authority has also appointed a former British Airways director to its board

Mark Carne

Network Rail has confirmed that outgoing chief executive Mark Carne will step away from the job in the middle of next month.

Carne (pictured), who announced he would be retiring from the company in February, will step down from the role on 13 August but will continue working for Network Rail until early September, finishing off his work on the Control Period 6 funding settlement.

Incoming chief executive Andrew Haines, who is the outgoing Civil Aviation Authority boss, will take up his new job the following day.

Haines, whose appointment was announced in May, is in line for a serious pay cut. He will paid £588,000 a year, 27% less than his predecessor.

He will also have an ‘at risk’ performance related pay element of up to 9% of basic salary that will be dependent upon performance measured against safety, financial, asset management, project delivery and customer and train performance metrics. His salary will be reviewed annually.

Network Rail also announced David Noyes, former chief executive of Cunard and a senior director at British Airways, had joined the board as a non-executive director.

Michael O’Higgins, who is a non-executive director, is retiring and will leave the board on the 31 August.