Passenger groups in Lancashire have slammed the top executives at Network Rail as "totally out of touch" as a government report highlights the "serious management failures" which led to it being hit with a record £14m fine.

The parliamentary transport select committee said that the bonuses were an insult to passengers, including the thousands caught up in chaos on the Lancashire stretches of the West Coast Mainline due to engineering works over the New Year.

Chris Dale, of Travelwatch North West, said: "The very least these people can do is give back these bonuses at least until this mess is sorted out, otherwise I think the war of hearts and minds will be all but beyond them with their passengers.

"Just because they have achieved some targets set by the Department for Transport will not go down well with people stood waiting on train station platforms for hours."

Network Rail chief executive Ian Coucher received a £305,581 performance bonus and a £205,000 target bonus, taking his total wage to £1.04m, infrastructure director Peter Henderson landed nearly £400,000 in bonuses - swelling his pay packet to £761,391 - and finance director Ron Henderson was handed £361,944, taking him to £764,944.

Aiden Turner-Bishop, of the Preston branch of the Campaign for Better Transport, said it was the latest evidence that Network Rail needed to be brought back into public ownership.

He said: "It is high time the whole thing was shaken up. Network Rail is not a private company it is owned by us, the passenger, and it is time we started rebuilding the public rail service.

"That would sharpen a few minds and stop the scandalous amounts of money being siphoned off into people's wage packets."

The select committee report, which was being published on Monday, blasted the "widespread complacency" shown by Network Rail executives and hit out at the lack of accountability to the service which picks up £6 billion off the taxpayer every year.

Chairman Louise Ellman, of the committee which drew up the report, said: "The bonuses paid to senior management will add insult to injury for long-suffering passengers who have to struggle with the company's failings."

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