British rail operator Network Rail says its profits increased by one fifth to £1.2bn last year, in a period where engineering project overruns saw the company fined and thousands of passengers inconvenienced.
However, the state-backed company claims it has made a breakthrough, saying 89.9 percent of trains ran on time for 2007-08 with the figure for April exceeding 90 percent, the highest since records began.
The rail company, which has no shareholders and invests directly back into the railway, says overall it has been a good year, with after-tax profits up from £1bn in 2006-07.
Operating profit increased to £2.4bn, up from £2.3bn, and debt stands at £19.7bn, up from last year's £18.4bn.
Chief Executive Ian Coucher says a £4bn investment programme has been delivered, delays caused by infrastructure have been cut and costs reduced.
Coucher says lessons have been learnt following the company being fined £14m by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) for engineering overruns at New Year.
"We saw at New Year what can happen when things do go wrong, but since then we have spent nearly £300m in ways that haven't been seen," he says.
The announcement comes as the ORR set Network Rail a new target to cut operating, renewal and maintenance costs by 21 percent over the next five years.
The ORR said on Thursday Network Rail would need £26.5bn to make the improvements, £3bn less than Network Rail had requested.
Network Rail says it will fight the decision, adding that in order to extend platforms to ease overcrowding it would need around £29bn.
Coucher says the ORR has not appreciated the urgency of some of the expansion work, putting some of the potential income into the following five-year period.
By Nicola Boyes
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