Media centre

Thursday 30 Jun 2005

NETWORK RAIL MARKS 1,000 DAYS

Region & Route:

National

Network Rail yesterday marked its 1,000th day as the operator of Britain’s railway network – 1,000 days of substantial changes and significant improvements for passengers and freight operators. John Armitt, Chief Executive said: “After 1,000 days, Network Rail, working with our industry partners, has delivered a better railway for all who use it.  Train performance is up while delays and costs are down.  Our challenge is to continue this progress and deliver a railway of which Britain can be proud.” Over the past 1,000 days, Network Rail has: reduced delays and improved performance; reduced costs and improved efficiency; renewed and invested in Britain’s railway; maintained high standards of safety; expanded its responsibilities and helped industry integration; and created opportunities for training and development within the rail industry. Reduced delays and improved performance

• Year on year reductions in delay minutes; in 2004/5 there were 11.4m delay minutes, compared with 13.7m the previous year – this beat the target of 12.3m minutes set by the independent rail regulator
• A rise in the proportion of ‘on time’ trains, as indicated by the Public Performance Measure, from 78.6% in October 2002 to 84.1% in May 2005
• Continued growth in the freight market, with a 4.2% increase in gross tonne miles in the year ending March 2005
• A 70% reduction in incidents during the last two Autumns, and a reduction in delays of 42% in 2004/5, compared with the previous year, following extensive work in seasonal preparation

Reduced costs and improved efficiency

• By summer 2004, the successful bringing in-house of maintenance – one of the UK’s most complex industry transfers, involving: seven maintenance contractors; 20 maintenance areas; more than 15,000 employees; 5,000 road vehicles; 600 depots; and a network of training centres
• An income of £102m from the performance regimes in 2004/5, compared to penalties of £348m the previous year
• An efficiency target of 31% (over five years) agreed with the ORR – and so far we’re on target to meet this

  Invested and renewed

• The laying of 1,585 miles of new rail, the replacement of 51,000 sleepers and more than 4.5m tonnes of ballast since October 2002
• A doubling of the rate of renewals compared with five years ago; in 1999/00 321 miles of rail, 130 S&C units and 249 miles of ballast were renewed – last year we renewed 626 miles of rail, 511 S&C units and 450 miles of ballast

• Extensive modernisation of the West Coast Main Line, with the introduction of a 125mph railway for tilting trains between London and Manchester in September 2004
• A reduction in West Coast project costs from £13bn to £7.6bn

• The delivery of the Southern power supply upgrade programme – on time and well under budget by £420m
• A drop in points failures of 11% and a fall in track circuit failures of 7% in 2004/5, compared with the previous year
• Heavy investment in the most advanced high output machinery in the world, machines with the potential to slash work times and increase productivity by more than 50%:

• One high output track renewal train and wagons (£17m)
• Two high output ballast machines (£26m each)
• Other plant to complement these high output systems (for example, dynamic track stabiliser) (£19m)

• Massive investment in a wide range of renewal projects and successful delivery of critical enhancements including Probus-Burngallow and Felixstowe to Nuneaton
• On-going planning for future projects to renew and enhance the railway, including the announcement, in February 2005, of a £400m redevelopment of King’s Cross station

  Maintained high standards of safety

• A decrease in the SPAD (Signals Passed At Danger) risk, on a two-year basis, by 61% to its lowest ever level, following the completion of the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) project
• In October 2004, the start of the £16m enhancement – TPWS+ - which will extend the benefits of TPWS
• A fall to the all-time ‘lowest ever’ record of broken rails to 322 in 2004/5; five years ago these stood at more than 900 per annum

  Expanded responsibilities and led industry integration

• The incorporation of 15,000 maintenance employees was completed successfully during the summer of 2004 and has delivered reduced costs and improved performance

• The establishment of seven integrated control centres, which are delivering tangible performance benefits of up to a 30% reduction in delays per incident – the measure most impacted by the speed of decision-making
• Increased responsibilities for: specifying small and medium enhancements, public reporting of performance, timetabling and route utilisation, following the Railways Act (2005)

Created training and development opportunities

• An ambitious programme of employee development, including:

o        £20m purpose-built leadership centre just purchased in Coventry o        Foundation degree course in railway engineering in its second year at Sheffield Hallam University o        Advanced apprentice scheme – one of Britain’s biggest – for over 1,000 17-18 year olds starts in September 2005 at HMS Sultan in Gosport o        State-of-the-art signaller training centres opened in Leeds and Watford o        Skills and competence training for all maintenance employees well underway Network Rail Chairman, Ian McAllister, added: “We are rightly proud of the achievements that have been made in the past 1,000 days, thanks to the hard work of all our people.  But we are not complacent about the work that still needs to be done to deliver a safe, efficient and reliable railway, which is fit for Britain in the 21st century.”