Commuters speak out against rail bosses' bonus payment after latest works overrun

REPRESENTATIVES of Thurrock's rail travellers have expressed their concern over continued management failure of track operator Network Rail following an overrun in engineering work today.

They have spoken out against the 'six figure' bonuses paid to senior Network Rail managers despite a catalogue of failures, particularly in the south east and on the west coast main line services.

Today early morning travel on the Tilbury loop of the line to Fenschurch Street was disrupted by problems at East Tilbury, where Network Rail engineers failed to meet their deadline and work to improve the track meant that some of the day's first services were cancelled, with a bus alternative provided.

Train operator c2c had warned commuters that the delays could extend past the morning rush hour, to to 10am but in the event services were back to normaol just after 7am.

However, members of Thurrock rail Users Group remain less than impressed with the performance of Network rail.

Spokesman Adrian Brown said: "We note that, again, weekend engineering work by Network Rail has overrun, and disrupted Monday morning peak hour c2c services on the Thurrock routes, leaving c2c with a service disruption situation to manage.

"It would be inappropriate to comment on how c2c managed the situation without further information on what has happened, which at the time of writing we do not have - other than a positive comment that text messages were sent by c2c to subscribers to their journey alerts service, warning of possible disruption.

"Although such overruns have become less frequent on this route than they have been in the past, nevertheless their continued occurrence reflects the nationwide situation, where we still look to Network Rail to apply the lessons which should have been learned from very high-profile overruns at major rail hubs over the New Year and Easter weekends.

"We believe we are in line with rail users and train operators across the country in deploring the acceptance, on the pretext that 'their targets were met', by senior directors of Network Rail of their six-figure bonuses.

"We can only conclude that the target regime was therefore clearly inadequate in scope, presumably focussing too narrowly on a few aspects of the overall service delivered and ignoring the impacts on their customers of their failings in the planning and management of engineering work.

"We note also the contrast with British Airways' actions following the fiasco at the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5, whereupon a number of senior directors responsible were dismissed."

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