The company that manages Britain’s railways has said it was responsible for fewer delays in the six months to September, saving it around £97 million.

Network Rail said its revenue increased by £610 million in the half-year period, largely because of inflation-linked price rises.

The increase in charges added £229 million to the company’s revenue, which hit £5.3 billion.

But the business also said a reduction in the compensation it paid to customers because of fewer delays and cancellations attributed to Network Rail boosted revenue by £97 million.

The company said its operating costs increased £398 million to £3.8 billion in the six months, with the largest contributor to this being a £137 million rise in its energy bills.

It saw its pre-tax loss narrow significantly from £980 million a year earlier to £82 million in the most recent period. Most of the loss was due to how the company valued some of its bonds.

A spokesman said: “Whilst Network Rail reached a settlement with its employees last March, train performance overall continues to be impacted by industrial action by train crews and drivers.

“This continues to hamper rail recovery.

“Nevertheless, passenger numbers increased by around 19% year on year to around 89% of the pre-Covid levels.”

Network Rail revealed that the value of Britain’s railway network increased from £82.7 billion at the end of March to £88.6 billion at the end of September.

The company has been trying to slash its costs by around £4 billion.

“The impact of inflation, tight public finances and the need to invest more to manage the impact of more frequent extreme weather on the infrastructure means that our funding will need to go further than ever before,” it said.

“We are committed to delivering extensive investments across the length and breadth of the network.

“In addition to improvements to safety, we’ll work to boost train performance, usher in new technologies, invest significantly more funds to tackle climate change as well as make £3.6 billion of efficiency savings.”