Media centre

Monday 23 Mar 2015

Network Rail and Freedom of Information

Region & Route:

National

From tomorrow (24 March) Network Rail will be subject to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and anyone will have the legal right to ask the company for information related to its public services and receive a reply within 20 working days. 

Areas covered by the Act include:

• Network Rail’s operation including its rail maintenance, renewal and development  programmes;
• Information about train movements and passenger information; 
• The operation of managed stations.

During the past three years the company has published a large amount of information about the organisation voluntarily as part of Its Transparency Programme. 

Mark Farrow, Head of Transparency for Network Rail, said: “We've already released a huge amount of data as part of our commitment to transparency and FOI is the next stage in delivering on our commitment to being more open and accountable. We are driven to becoming an organisation that is trusted by the travelling public, taxpayers and politicians.  Publishing information under FOI will help people understand what we do, how we do it and why.”

Editors Notes

Network Rail’s FOI designation as a public authority covers:

• Network Rail Limited
• Network Rail Holdco Limited
• Network Rail Infrastructure Limited