Commenting on the report’s publication, Rick Haythornthwaite, Network Rail’s chairman, said: “The last year has been one of steady progress across many areas but especially in cutting the cost of running the rail network.

Commenting on the report’s publication, Rick Haythornthwaite, Network Rail’s chairman, said: “The last year has been one of steady progress across many areas but especially in cutting the cost of running the rail network. The year has also seen the company grappling with the difficult balance and trade-offs between cost, capacity and performance with more work needed to meet tough punctuality targets.”

Financial and performance highlights for the year:

  £120m cut from the cost of running the railway
  Post tax profit increased by £441m (£754m, 2010/11 £313m)
  Revenue was £6,004m (20010/11 £5,712m)
  Operating profits were £2,337m (2010/11 : £2,028m)
  Capital expenditure was £4,600m (2010/11 : £3,997m)
  Net debt at year end was £27,281m (2010/11 : £25,049m)
  Gearing ratio (debt to regulated asset base) was 62.5% (2010/11: 63.4%)

  In 2011/12 91.6% of passenger trains ran on time, up on the 2010/11 figure of 90.9%

Earlier this year Network Rail’s chief executive, David Higgins, announced that he, and his fellow executive directors, would forego any entitlement to an annual bonus this year (2011/12). Also, a long-term incentive scheme is still in discussion with key stakeholders and members, so a new scheme has yet to be put in place.

Therefore there are no bonus payments being made this year (either annual or long-term) to the executive directors of Network Rail.