Network Rail wins approval for six figure bonuses

Who was it that privatised the railways ? Good idea ? What Party ? Regulators any use ?

If he is leaving - why pay him a bonus????? Why did the Govt sell the railway only to keep propping it up with subsidies? cut these subsidies back by half, that'll keep 'em honest.

Solution is so simple - reduce next years government subsidy by £2.35m

Easy solution, cut the subsidy to British Rail by twice the amount handed out in bonuses

If you cut the subsidies you will have no railway. The reason for nationalisation was the impossibility of earning profits. Railways have to maintain the track on which trains run. Roads, their natural competitor, are maintained by the government. Close the railways and you will increase congestion and add to global warming. Perhaps the answer is re-nationalisation. Whatever happened to the public service ethos?

Roads are not maintained by the government, they are funded by the taxes levied on car drivers with road tax and petrol duty. I agree that the Network Rail subsidy should be reduced by the amount of bonuses being paid.

I think Brian is right, re-nationalisation of the track is the answer with one caveat. Whoever runs it as a public servant has pay capped at a maximium of £140K plus annual CPI increases, and any civil service pension (it will be new if re-nationalised) capped at a maximium salary level of £75K, i.e if they do 5 years service they get 5/60ths of £75K as pension. Retirement age to be the State one, not 60.

I wonder how many "bigwigs" would accept that?

re: Easy solution, cut the subsidy to British Rail by twice the amount handed out in bonuses

£2.35 million times 2 is barely a scratch in the £5 Billion yearly rail subsidies. (0.1%)

It's not the sum of money being paid [£2.35 million] for the bonuses, but the principal that this is a state owned monopoly. Coucher and Co should go out and try to get similar money in the real world!

Network Rail must be the most inefficient rail maintenance organisation in the world - its costs are three time those of comparable European organisations and the annual subsidy from the taxpayer is three times (in real terms) that which was given to Railtrack.

If I was David Cameron, I would dismiss the Chairman for defying the political mood of the country and manipulating the members into "approving" these bonuses. Note that only 48% did so. The 9 members who wimped out and abstained on the vote should also be dismissed; they turn up and take their expenses including free first class rail travel, but cannot do their job!

Newtwork Rail should be renationalised; there would be no compensation to pay as it is already effictively owned by the taxpayer.

I agree whole-heartedly with all the expressions of disgust which have been voiced here. The problem is "BONUS CULTURE"

If my memory serves me correctly the bonus system was adopted by manufacturing industry during WW II. i.e. It was recognised that manual workers and front end staff can be incentivised to become more productive if they are remunerated on a payment by results basis, but it only applied to those whose output could be easily measured. However most employers discontinued the system because it was unfair to employees who carried out service, support, and maintenance roles. It was also generally thought in those times that if you were paid a salary you had been installed in a previleged position and that something catastrophic would have to happen to cause you to lose it, whereas if you were hourly paid you could be hired and fired. The same applies today, except that management take all the credit, and the lyon's of the profits for positive results, and penalise their staff for everything that goes wrong.

I have travelled on a number of former Soviet Union public transport systems. A legacy of that era still lives on. My impressions were that there is a greater sense of public duty and fairness for all. e.g. The tariffs charged place a greater emphasise on periods of time rather than on distance travelled. The main objective seems to be to cover costs as apposed to making a profit. Whether they achieve their goal or not, the fact is that their fares are simple to understand and nowhere near as high as those charged in UK.

At the end of the day the government must decide what sort of rail network the country deserves, and who they think should be permitted to use it. Is it REALLY their intention to build a rail system that is the most modern in Europe, but will be so costly that only those who earn salaries and bonus's will be able to afford to use it.

Our leader Dave has voiced his concern about this bonus culture but does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it so what does that tell us.

It is beyond belief that any country with a deficit like ours can continue to pay bonuses to people in organisations( like the public sector and others which receive such massive subsidies)for simply doing their job.

THIS HAS TO STOP AND STOP NOW if any politicians are reading this which I doubt very much.

Nice to know 'We're all in this together', I guess some aren't in it quite as deep as others.

Close the railways - easy solution. For the last 50 years at least they have always been a conduit for the taxpayer/rail traveller's money to be given to railway employees - either trade union members or management or both - the service is pathetic - turn the railway lines into bus only roads and privatise the lot.

every employee of a company subsidised or recieve large benifits from national property should have their toatl renumeration capped at prime ministers wage this includes network rail, bbc, prs (performing right society, and any bank or institution that derives the majority of its cash from the taxpayer Bonuses should be paid for exceptional performance or a percentage additional value brought to the business in comparison to what would be achieved by anyone for instance a banker who use his knowledge and contacts to bring on a new profitable sector deserves a bonus when the public is both paying subsidies and paying fares it is impossible to justify these bonuses except as a small industry standard percentage of profit for a ceo for a company not losing money but making profit 0.04% or if he make savings of billions of pounds more than a normal person would in which case you have got to think how wasteful can a caompany be