RICHMOND, Va. -- When we last heard of Ronald J. Conway, he was leaving CSX Corp. nearly a year ago as it grappled with safety issues and falling profits, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

Conway, a former Conrail Inc. executive, joined CSX amid high hopes he could lead a smooth transition with his old company.

But the whole Eastern rail system got jammed up after the Conrail merger, and Conway became the fall guy.

Last April, Conway left CSX's Jacksonville, Fla., office after profits plummeted.

At the time, there was speculation about how much the company paid Conway to leave. But nobody was saying just how sweet the deal was.

That changed last week when CSX disclosed it paid Conway at least $1.2 million in cash and stock in a severance agreement.

It also increased his pension by 15 percent.

The deal was confidential until it was disclosed in CSX's annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The package included $1 million in a combination of cash, stock and a bonus. Conway got another 9,490 shares around June 30, when the stock was trading at $21.19, or about $200,000, according to Bloomberg News.

"We think it is a fair agreement," Jeff McCutcheon, a CSX vice president of human resources, told Bloomberg.