Hard-Working Families

The chief executive of National Rail, Iain Coucher, has taken a staggering fourteen per cent reduction in his annual bonus. The remuneration committee decided that, despite the fiasco at the beginning of the year, he deserved all of his half-million-pound salary and eighty-six per cent of the bonus. Coucher will also receive about £200,000 as part of Network Rail's "long-term incentive plan" to keep fares at an appropriate level. The Office of Rail Regulation fined Network Rail fourteen million pounds for the fun and games at New Year, which made an appalling dent in the company's after-tax profit of one thousand, two hundred million pounds. Executive bonuses have been cut by a crippling five per cent across the board. It is not clear how many of Network Rail's executives will miss payments on their mortgages, or have to choose between heating and eating next winter, as a result; but no doubt the effect will be salutary.