by Michael Tate

Network Rail bosses are going to get bonuses totalling £2.25 million this year.

They are getting these bonuses because the trains are running on time, but they don’t own or control the trains, they only manage the rail infrastructure. The Office of Rail Regulation has described the performance of Network Rail to be ‘patchy’ at best, but the bosses plan to reward themselves anyway.

This is despite the already handsome salaries that they are on. The chief executive, Iain Coucher, rakes in £613,000 a year. He will get an extra £641,000 if the plan goes ahead.

Engineering overruns caused travel chaos at New Years, and many workers still face disruption and delays on their commutes and when travelling around the country.

Bob Crow of the rail maritime and transport union called it a national scandal and said "While hundreds of maintenance staff face the prospect of being thrown on the dole, it is nothing short of a national scandal that Iain Coucher is walking out of the door with a golden-handshake bonus of nearly two-thirds of a million pounds."

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Meanwhile, the Tories have been celebrating their budget of cuts at a lavish party where the cheapest tickets cost £450.

After telling us all that we must ‘tighten our belts’ following the announcement of the harshest budget in seventy years, and increasing VAT to 20 per cent this is the true face of the Tories.

They ordered 432 bottles of expensive Brut champagne for the 400 city boys and hedge fund spivs attending.

This will raise over £1 million for the Tory party. This is the bankers and financiers way of rewarding the Tory party for their services and for passing the most savage budget in Britain history, a budget that is aimed directly at attacking the working class.