by John Armitt, Network Rail
November 2004

Network Rail is now two years old and has made significant progress towards achieving our primary goal – to deliver a safe, reliable and efficient railway. We have taken some bold decisions that put us in a better position to accelerate this progress. Already, customers are starting to see benefits from the tremendous amount of work being done behind the scenes to deliver a better railway. The most significant development over the past year was bringing 100% of rail maintenance in-house.

Since Network Rail made the strategic decision in October 2003 to bring rail maintenance in-house and create a single integrated rail maintenance operation, some 16,000 maintenance staff, a fleet of over 5,000 road vehicles, a network of training centres and almost 600 depots have come under direct Network Rail control.

This groundbreaking move represents the most fundamental change to the railway since privatisation and its success is essential to Network Rail. By creating a unified maintenance function we will deliver three key benefits: the consistent application of high standards of railway maintenance, significant efficiencies and continued improvement in trackside safety standards.

This massive achievement has re-united the key elements of the operation of the railway that lie at the heart of improving performance. Services are already seeing the benefits of the change as delays have tumbled by an average of 21% in those areas where maintenance came in-house first.

These performance gains are not just a one off but continue to show consistent improvements. During the first six months of 2004/2005 performance took a leap forward as the company reduced train delays by 16% compared to the same period last year, meaning that around 84% of trains ran on time.

We have now seen a full calendar year of consecutive performance improvements as Network Rail delays are driven down. After two years of significant change and progress, train delays and costs are being driven down, although there remains much still to do. I’m proud that we have come this far in so short a space of time and we have begun to turn this company around, but our job is far from finished and we seek ever more improvement. But the changes for Network Rail are far from being over. In July 2004 the Government published its White Paper on the future of the railways.

The White Paper places significant new responsibilities on Network Rail in the areas of strategic planning and the day-to-day operation of the network. Having taken maintenance in-house, reduced delays and improved the efficiency of the railway within the last twelve months, we look forward to taking on fresh challenges within this new structure.

For Network Rail, the hard work continues. The White Paper has clarified responsibilities and given us all a sure footing on which we must build. Everyone at Network Rail will roll up their sleeves and get on with the job, working closely with our colleagues in the train and freight companies to help them meet the expectations of railway users.

The White Paper will allow us to build on the progress we have made so far. Clearly further improvements are essential to deliver the railway our customers and passengers expect but I believe that people will look back on 2003-04 as the year the railway turned a corner towards a future that delivers a much better service. In the year to come this improvement must continue.

A key part of the continued success story of delivering a better, safer, more efficient railway is our relationship with, and the performance of our suppliers. Although we are reducing the overall number of suppliers we are looking to develop better, closer relationships that will see all parties as winners.

This year has seen the award of multi million pound, five-year track renewals contracts that must deliver better efficiencies and value for money. Network Rail have established integrated management teams with our contractors, cutting out man marking and sharing the decisions and successes of this new way of working.

This type of close relationship is where Network Rail sees improved efficiency and the contractor sees reasonable margins with the sharing of responsibilities. All parties are focussed on the same objectives, the delivery of a safe, more reliable and efficient railway for the passenger.