A commuters' group is furious that rail managers have been given performance bonuses despite months of disruption on the network.

Managers at Connex, which runs most Sussex trains, will get performance-related payouts of between £250 and £750.

That will come as a shock to thousands of Sussex commuters who have faced months of delays and cancellations.

A spokesman for the Brighton Line Commuters group said: "Connex has obviously responded with financial reward to pressure put on staff by Railtrack's lack of investment in our railways.

"But many of our commuters have not yet received compensation for extremely poor services running over three months from November through to the end of January."

She added: "The service priority for the rail operators must be their clients, for without them there will be no jobs nor profit."

A spokesman for Connex said: "Rail managers, as part of their wage agreement, have an amount of performance-related payment. Those amounts are being calculated at the moment."

Connex travellers have suffered months of chaos, with flooding affecting services in late October and early November.

Speed restrictions caused delays throughout the network after Railtrack launched urgent engineering works after the Hatfield rail crash in October, which was caused by a broken rail.

In recent weeks, heavy rain has caused further delays and cancellations on the fast line following a landslide in Surrey.

Last year Connex lost its bid to keep the South Central franchise and received more complaints than any other operator.

Moans about its services between London Victoria and Sussex increased by 31 per cent to the end of March last year.

The main causes for complaint were poor punctuality, lack of information and failure to deal effectively with claims.