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Network Rail is planning to cut hundreds more jobs over and above the 1,800 planned cuts it announced at the end of last month.

The network now plans to cut a total of 2,549 jobs. But it said the additional losses included sub-contractors, and did not constitute permanent jobs.

It has said the cuts are necessary as its budget for the next five years has been trimmed by ^4bn.

The firm currently employs a total of 33,000 people across the country.

When the company, which owns Britain's rail infrastructure, announced the original planned job losses, it said it intended to trim the positions by April 2011. It said it hoped to avoid any compulsory redundancies.

"These shocking figures now expose the full extent of the jobs massacre that's being planned by Network Rail and would leave essential maintenance works cut to ribbons with potentially lethal consequences for the travelling public," the rail union RMT said.

Network rail responded by saying: "Safety would never be compromised as Network Rail's number one job is to provide a safe, reliable and punctual railway. The RMT is spouting its usual typical scaremongering nonsense."