NETWORK Rail made an after-tax profit of £1.2 billion last year, it was announced today.The after-tax profit figure for 2007/08 was up from £1 billion recorded in the previous 12 months.

NETWORK Rail made an after-tax profit of £1.2 billion last year, it was announced today.

The after-tax profit figure for 2007/08 was up from £1 billion recorded in the previous 12 months.

But the net debt for the not-for-dividend company, which has no shareholders, rose from £18.4 billion in 2006/07 to £19.7 billion in the 12 months ending March 2008.

The company said that during the last financial year train punctuality had reached its highest ever figure, with 89.9% of trains arriving on time. The company added that the figure for the 12 months ending April 2008 was now above 90%.

Announcing the results, NR chairman Sir Ian McAllister said: "Overall, the last year has been a good one for Network Rail and the industry as a whole, with passengers seeing a better service.

"Train performance is at an all-time high, a £4 billion investment programme has been delivered, delays caused by the infrastructure have been cut and costs have also been reduced."

Earlier this year NR the was fined a record £14 million by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) because of train delays in the new year, when resulted from engineering overruns.

Sir Ian said: "Lessons have been learnt following the engineering overrun. Changes have been made to make the planning and execution of such big improvement schemes more robust.”