Network Rail needs to save £2bn, rail regulator will state

Network Rail needs to save £2bn a year, according to a report due to be published today (Thursday) by the rail regulator Tom Winsor.

Cost savings rumoured to be in the document will be a call for work to be halted on Network Rail's £10bn track improvement contracts across the West Coast Mainline between London and Glasgow.

Winsor, who has publicly expressed his concerns over Network Rail's plans to spend £27.8bn over the next three years, £12bn over budget, wants work to be paused until the end of the year so that the rail operator can rethink its spending when a final decision on Network Rail's future funding will be decided.

At the company's AGM in Glasgow yesterday, 51 people appointed as public members of the not-for-profit company grilled senior figures over the controversial system of bonus payments that executives could receive if train punctuality improves.

If it radically improves, five senior managers would get pay rises totalling £1bn.