NETWORK RAIL STATEMENT CONCERNING ONS CLASSIFICATION

Friday 27 Feb 2004

NETWORK RAIL STATEMENT CONCERNING ONS CLASSIFICATION

Region & Route:: National

Network Rail notes today’s announcement from the Office of National Statistics concerning the classification of Network Rail. The ONS has confirmed that Network Rail is classified in the private sector. Ian McAllister, Chairman, said: “The classification of Network Rail is a matter for others to determine. Our task is to deliver safe, reliable and efficient rail infrastructure. “Network Rail is a company limited by guarantee subject to rigorous independent economic regulation. This ensures that we are held strongly to account by our members and the Regulator, but also that we have financial certainty and secure, predictable revenues. “Network Rail is improving the performance of Britain’s railway. We reduced delays attributed to the company by 26% in the final three months of 2003. This was the best performance for this quarter since before the Hatfield crash. In the Reading area, where Network Rail has taken maintenance in-house, performance was even better – a 47% reduction in delays attributable to infrastructure.”

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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