Network Rail: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Rail company in Greatthe BritainUnited Kingdom}}

| successor = [[Great British Railways]] (from 2024)

In May 2021, the Government announced its intent to replace Network Rail in 2023 with a new public body called [[Great British Railways]].<ref name="GreatBritishRailways" /> In 2022 it was announced that Greatthis British Railwaysprocess would not replace Network Rail untilbe 2024delayed.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-10-19 |title=Great British Railways transport bill shelved |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-63313823 |access-date=2022-11-26}}</ref>

A spate of accidents, including the [[Southall rail crash]] in 1997<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/19/newsid_2524000/2524283.stm |title = Six dead in Southall Train Disaster |work = BBC News |date = 19 September 1997}}</ref> and the [[Ladbroke Grove rail crash]] in 1999<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/467919.stm |title = Ladbroke Grove Crash |work = BBC News |date = 11 October 1999}}</ref> called into question the negative consequences that the fragmentation of the railway network had introduced to both safety and maintenance procedures. Railtrack was severely criticised for both its performance for infrastructure improvement and for its safety record.<ref name = "parliament summary2010"/><ref>{{cite journal |url = https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840903476379?journalCode=raec20 |title = The rise and fall of Railtrack PLC: an event study |journal = Applied Economics |volume = 43 |date = 2011 |issue = 23 |pages = 3143–3153|doi = 10.1080/00036840903476379 |last1 = Glass |first1 = Anthony |s2cid = 154603770 }}</ref> The [[Hatfield train crash]] on 17 October 2000 was a defining moment in the collapse of Railtrack.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_2491000/2491425.stm |title = Four dead in Hatfield Train Crash |work = BBC News |date = 17 October 2000 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080307134427/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_2491000/2491425.stm |archive-date = 7 March 2008 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> The immediate major repairs undertaken across the whole British railway network were estimated to have cost in the order of [[Pound sterling|£]]580 million and Railtrack had no idea how many more 'Hatfields' were waiting to happen because it had lost considerable in-house engineering skill following the sale or closure of many of the engineering and maintenance functions of [[British Rail]] to external companies; nor did the company have any way of assessing the consequence of the speed restrictions it was ordering. These restrictions brought the railway network to an almost total standstill and drew significant public ire.<ref name = "timeline guardian2002">{{cite news |url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/27/transport.uk |title = Timeline: Railtrack |newspaper = The Guardian |first1 = Mark |last1 = Tran |first2 = Sarah |last2 = Left |first3 = Philip |last3 = Pank |date = 27 June 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1482439/Hatfield-crash-was-disaster-waiting-to-happen.html |title = Hatfield crash "was disaster waiting to happen" |newspaper = [[The Daily Telegraph]] |date = 31 January 2005 |access-date = 22 August 2016 |archive-date = 10 February 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180210181641/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1482439/Hatfield-crash-was-disaster-waiting-to-happen.html |url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/989218.stm|title=Railtrack shuts down West Coast Main Line |work = BBC News |date = 25 October 2000 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131110021218/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/989218.stm|archive-date = 10 November 2013 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> According to railway historian [[Christian Wolmar]], Railtrack's board panicked in the wake of Hatfield.<ref>{{cite book |last = Wolmar |first = Christian |title = On the Wrong Line |publisher = Aurum Press |date = 2005 |isbn = 978-1-85410-998-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSMzj9wC_soC&pg=PT290|page=290|via=Google Books}}</ref> Railtrack's first chief executive, John Edmonds, had pursued a deliberate strategy of [[outsource|outsourcing]] engineers' work wherever possible with the goal of reducing costs.<ref name = "Edmonds obituarytelegraph">{{cite news |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/05/27/john-edmonds-executive-forced-radical-changes-british-rail/ |title = John Edmonds, executive who forced through radical changes at British Rail – obituary |newspaper = The Telegraph |date = 27 May 2020}}</ref>

Glasgow Central and Liverpool Lime Street stations are divided into high and low-level stations – the high-level stations are all termini used primarily by the main inter-city services to those stations. The low-level stations are through routes on local commuter networks that are largely separate from other routes to the main station; these platforms are not managed by Network Rail, but instead by the rail operator that primarily uses them, ([[ScotRail]] and [[Merseyrail]] respectively).{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

File:Switch_and_Crossing_Rail_Grinder_DR79261_and_DR79271Switch and Crossing Rail Grinder DR79261 and DR79271.jpg|[[Railgrinder]] for switches and crossings