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Wednesday 31 Mar 2004

NETWORK RAIL PUBLISHES 10 YEAR BUSINESS PLAN - A CLEAR PLAN FOR A BETTER RAILWAY -

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Network Rail today unveiled its 2004 business plan, which highlights unprecedented investment and a clear plan for improving Britain’s railway. Over the next five years the company will spend some £26 billion to deliver a safe, reliable, value for money railway. The 2004 Business Plan is the first based on a fixed and certain level of income and gives the business stability and a clear direction.  It sets out a detailed blueprint for improving performance and reducing costs through a huge programme of action and activity. It demonstrates how Network Rail will spend £14 million each day on operating, maintaining, renewing and enhancing the network to deliver the maximum benefit for Britain’s rail users. The plan looks forward10 years but examines in detail the activity over years one to three with years four and five based on projections and good knowledge and years six to 10 based on forward analysis. It details Network Rail’s commitment to achieving better than pre-Hatfield levels before the end of 2006.  Whilst this is already the case in parts of the country on some days and weeks, the company’s challenge is to do so consistently over a 12 month period.  Network Rail further shows how it will achieve consistent 90% train punctuality within five years. - more - Plan – 2 Tim Clarke, Network Rail’s regional director for the north west said:  “This clear plan shows our commitment to deliver a better train service to the passenger through the enormous amount of activity and investment that will be pumped into Britain’s aging railway infrastructure over the next five years. “Every day we will have over 20,000 rail workers out on the track rebuilding Britain’s railway.  Our job must be to ensure that we get the most out of every shovel-full, making every penny count in the delivery of a better, more reliable railway.” Renewing track, ballast and sleepers will be Network Rail’s biggest renewals expenditure, spending around £45m per annum in the north west.  In 2004/05 it will be replacing 52 kilometres of track, a 2.6% increase on 2003/04.  Engineers have assessed the whole of the network and prioritised sites, which if not addressed, will begin to impact on passenger services.  Having secured these funds Network Rail will proactively work to prevent speed restrictions being imposed and improve the reliability of the infrastructure. Network Rail will also be committing £156m per annum to maintenance in the region.  Routine maintenance is essential to the safe, reliable running of the railway. It will also be focussing its efforts on efficiency and affordability ensuring that every pound counts. Maintenance contracts will be brought in-house before the end of the year and this will lead to efficiencies with clear lines of responsibility, fewer overheads and more direct input into engineering decisions. There are other workstreams that will lead to better performance, these look at how the company has worked in the past and how it can use best practise in the future.  For instance never before has there been a database of all its assets but it has developed and will continue to work on a computer-based system (MIMS) that stores millions of asset records.  These records are updated and maintained by engineers and help Network Rail to work proactively, identifying potential areas of concern before they become problems. - more - Plan – 3 Network Rail has also improved its weather strategy and now focuses resources on not just autumn, but also preparations for hot weather, which can buckle rails and affect overhead lines, and extreme cold weather, which can freeze equipment and weigh down overhead lines. Mr Clarke added:  “The 2004 Business Plan marks the next phase of Network Rail’s task of rebuilding Britain’s railway.  It gives us certainty about the future, where we can look forward to sustained high levels of investment and increased activity levels, that will lead to a more reliable, better railway for our customers and rail users.”