Best-paid Tube driver is on £61,218 a year Drivers can also earn a "customer service bonus" of £250, which is paid to all staff depending on passenger satisfaction levels, and are entitled to free travel, including a spouse or partner, worth more than £4000 a year for an annual zone six season ticket. TfL chiefs declined to identify the highest paid driver. The packages were paid before Tube union bosses forced through a four-year inflation-busting deal, leading to train drivers increasing their basic pay to £52,000 by 2015. The package includes pension contributions of more than 30 per cent, which is one of the most lucrative in the private sector. Last month a wave of strikes by London tube drivers was cancelled after "meaningful" peace talks between their union and management in a dispute over Boxing Day pay. Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng, who sits on the Commons transport committee, described the pension deals as "platinum-plated." "Many ordinary commuters going into London will be staggered at some of these sums," the member for Spelthorne told the London Evening Standard. Nigel Holness, the London Underground network services director, denied the pay was excessive. He added: "Tube drivers earn a fixed salary of around £44,545 per annum plus benefits. This is comparable to other major train operators in the UK and reflects the pressured and skilled nature of the work and the unsociable hours that often have to be undertaken. Employer pension contributions are not part of an employee's salary and the cost of providing free travel to staff and their nominees on TfL services is nil, given that much of this travel is for work purposes.