Rail privateers are laughing all the way to the bank after this week’s storm, transport union RMT has said.

Train companies are set to cash in at the expense of publicly owned Network Rail because of cancelled services.

RMT said it “exposes the rip-off of rail privatisation in all its gory detail.”

Under “schedule eight” payments the firms can claim huge sums of money back, leaving the taxpayer left to pick up the bill.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, confirmed private operators would line their pockets with compensation as a result of disruption to services.

It refused to say exactly how much they hoped to grab.

A spokesman said: “When unexpected delays happen it discourages passengers from travelling in the future, which in turn reduces the value of the franchise.”

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the payments gave train companies an incentive to overplay disruption in order to cash in.

“Due to the stupid way that privatisation works it suits the train operators down to the ground not to run services and to lay the blame at the door of Network Rail,” he said.

“That way their armies of lawyers can claim compensation and leave the taxpayer to pick up the tab.”

Much of the disruption could have been avoided if vital maintenance had been carried out, Mr Crow said.

“Money that could have been spent tackling the half-billion-pound backlog on rail drainage works is instead being ripped off by greedy train companies.

“While thousands of essential and safety critical rail track jobs have been cut, the boardrooms are awash with spare cash that is being bled out of exactly the sort of capacity and maintenance works that could have mitigated against” the effects of the storm.

“RMT is in no doubt that the train operators are happy to exploit this chaos as the system allows them to get paid for doing nothing. The whole situation stinks and reinforces the case for public ownership.”