Six-figure bonuses for rail bosses

Network Rail bosses are to receive six-figure bonuses after announcing profits of £1.2 billion in the year to the end of March.

Chief executive Iain Coucher will receive £305,581 and two other directors will pocket over £200,000 each.

The top three will also get bonuses of more than £153,000, with Mr Coucher getting £205,000, under a rolling three-year incentive plan.

All staff will share an annual bonus pot of £55 million, with each getting at least £871.

The figures come after engineering overruns at New Year that led to the company being fined a record £14 million by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

Labour MP Louise Ellman, chairman of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee, denounced the bonuses as "outrageous and showing contempt for the public".

She added: "The travelling public will feel outraged, as I do, that they are awarding themselves these bonuses."

NR chairman Sir Ian McAllister said: "Overall, the last year has been a good one...a £4 billion investment programme has been delivered, delays caused by the infrastructure have been cut and costs have also been reduced.

"Lessons have been learnt following the engineering overrun. Changes have been made to make the planning and execution of such big improvement schemes more robust."

On Thursday the ORR published draft proposals requiring NR to improve efficiency punctuality with a budget of more than £3 billion less than NR asked for over 2009-14.

The ORR is also keen for NR to reduce weekend engineering work and the impact that has on passengers to a minimum.

NR said it will fight the decision, adding it needs around £29 billion to extend platforms to ease overcrowding.

NR said that during the last financial year train punctuality had reached its highest ever figure, with 89.9 per cent of trains arriving on time.

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