NETWORK Rail staff are demanding to know why their pay is rising below-inflation levels, after Network Rail’s official return to public ownership yesterday.

Holding a celebratory assembly outside the company’s headquarters, members of all three rail unions — TSSA, Aslef and RMT — asked where money raised through passenger fares and taxpayer subsidies was ultimately going.

“All the investment seems to end up in the pockets of fat cats,” said RMT South East council executive member Mike Sargent.