RAIL infrastructure company Network Rail (NR) went further into the red last night - but still paid huge bonuses to its top managers.

NR chief executive John Armitt will receive £352,728, while his deputy chief executive Iain Coucher will receive £314,490.

That contrasts with the award of a £954 bonus to most of the company's 32,000 staff, compared with the £1,112 the majority of workers received last year.

The bonuses were announced as NR revealed its pre-tax losses had widened from £47m in 2004/2005, to £232m in 2005/2006.

Finance director Ron Henderson and projects and engineering director Peter Henderson received bonuses of £235,033.

The bonuses are linked to performance, which includes train punctuality, which rose last year to more than 86 per cent of trains running on time - the highest figure for six years.

NR's net debt now stands at £18.2bn - up from £15.6bn in 2004/05.

The train punctuality figure for 2005/2006 of 86.4 per cent of trains running on time compared with 83.6 per cent in 2004/2005.