Network Rail

In October 2002, Network Rail took over the running of Britain’s rail infrastructure with a mandate from the Government to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the railway

When we took responsibility for the rail network on 28 October 2002 the immediate priorities were clear: restoring public confidence in the safety of the railway, reducing the number of late trains – at the time almost a quarter were late, and bringing costs under control.

Sustained renewals programme
Despite the money being spent, the railway was still suffering from a lack of investment. So, with support from the Government, we set about a massive and sustained programme of renewing track, signals, power and telecoms equipment.

Bringing maintenance in-house
Other pressing issues included the need to create a single way of working across the Company, rather than having the same task done differently in different parts of the country, and the need to bring maintenance into the Company rather than contracting it out.

When maintenance was brought in-house in 2004 it was the biggest single change of our first five years, almost doubling the number of employees.

Standard ways of working
It brought many benefits, including new standardised ways of working and economies of scale. The underlying approach also changed – from “find and fix” to “predict and prevent”, ie predicting where problems were likely to happen before they happened and preventing them before they caused delay to passengers. This was supported by the introduction of new technology, notably the New Measurement Train.

Apprenticeships
Equal importance and effort was attached to investing in our people. The Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme was established which is now the largest of such schemes in the country. We also set up a partnership with Warwick Business School to develop future leaders, run from our leadership centre at Westwood.

Collaboration
More joint working with the rest of the industry, notably with train operators in integrated control centres, has helped improve punctuality.

Route Utilisation Strategies
From 2005 we also took on responsibility for planning for the future, principally through the Route Utilisation Strategies which, in partnership with the rest of the industry, set out strategies for the network over coming decades.

This strategy delivered. By March 2009 punctuality had reached 90.6%, rail was unquestionably the safest form of transport and the cost of running the railway had been reduced by 28%.

A success story
Today, rail is a success story. There are more journeys than at any time, with the exception of the two world wars – 3.25 million every day and 1.3 billion a year. Though the network is half the size it was before the 1960s, more trains run every day than ever before.

Rail is no longer an industry in decline, but one expanding and planning with confidence. We have achieved some notable successes which have given our stakeholders confidence that we can deliver. In Scotland the railway between Airdrie and Bathgate has been re-opened, on time and to budget. Improvements to the London Overground have allowed longer trains to run more often, helping transform Stratford station into a fitting gateway to the Olympic Park.

Growing the railway
Our initial priorities – improved safety and punctuality, and reduced costs – remain as important as ever. However, we will also invest almost £25 billion between 2014 and 2019 to grow the railway. Projects such as the Thameslink Programme, the Reading redevelopment and the Strategic Freight Network will mean more capacity on some of our busiest routes and make up the largest expansion of the railway for more than a century.

Delivering the capacity the railway needs in the coming decades, while continuing to improve the service provided to those people and companies that rely on rail, is a challenge that we have readily accepted.

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