Network Rail: Difference between revisions

{{short description|State-ownedRail company thatin manages rail infrastructure inthe GreatUnited BritainKingdom}}

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

| foundation = {{Start date and age|2002|10|3|df=yes}}

|[[Peter Hendy|Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill]] (chairman)|Andrew Haines (CEO)|Ric Scott (Highland Area LOM)}}

| revenue = £6.6 billion (2019)<ref name=ap2019>{{cite web |url= https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annual-report-and-accounts-2019.pdf |work=Network Rail Limited Annual report and accounts 20199 |title=Network Rail Limited Annual report and accounts 2019 |publisher=Network Rail |date=18 July 2019 |access-date=2019-10-24 |archive-date=9 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509075647/https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Annual-report-and-accounts-2019.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

'''Network Rail Limited''' is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and [[Railway infrastructure manager|infrastructure manager]] of most of the railway network in [[Great Britain]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.networkrail.co.uk/ |title=Network Rail |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107014125/http://www.networkrail.co.uk/ |archivedate=7 November 2007 |accessdateaccess-date=25 May 2009 }}</ref> Network Rail is ana [[non-departmental public body|"arm's length" public body]] of the [[Department for Transport]] with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways.

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>

[[Rail transport in Great Britain|Britain's railway system]] was built by private companies, but it was [[nationalisation|nationalised]] by the [[Transport Act 1947]] and run by [[British Rail]]ways until [[Privatisation of British Rail|re-privatisation]] which was begun in 1994 and completed in 1997.<ref>{{cite journal |url = https://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/1/strangleman.html |first = Tim |last = Strangleman |date = 2002 |title = Nostalgia for Nationalisation -– the Politics of Privatisation |journal = Sociological Research Online |volume = 7 |number = 1 |pages = 92–105 |doi = 10.5153/sro.701 |s2cid = 144684740 }}</ref><ref name = "wolmar 2005">{{cite news |last = Christian |first = Wolmar |newspaper = [[The Guardian]] |date = 16 July 2005 |url = https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,1529802,00.html |title = Forget Byers: the scandal was in the original sell-off: Railtrack was heading for disaster long before the Hatfield crash}}</ref> As a part of the privatisation process, the railway infrastructure, passenger and freight services were separated into separate organisations. Between 1994 and 2002, the infrastructure was owned and operated by [[Railtrack]], a privately-owned company.<ref name = "parliament summary2010">{{cite web |url = https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01224/SN01224.pdf |title = Railways: Railtrack, 1994-2002 |date = 24 March 2010 |website = parliament.uk |first = Louise |last = Butcher}}</ref><ref name = "Edmondreplace independent1997">{{cite news |url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/beleaguered-railtrack-seeks-big-hitter-to-replace-edmonds-1257605.html |title = Beleaguered Railtrack seeks 'big hitter' to replace Edmonds |newspaper = The Independent |first1 = Sameena |last1 = Ahmad |first2 = Andrew |last2 = Yates |date = 22 June 1997}}</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

*{{rws| London St Pancras International}} – {{rws| Nottingham}}, {{rws| DerbySheffield}}, {{rws| Chesterfield}}

In 2001, the then Labour government denied that it had nationalised the rail network in order to prevent Railtrack's shareholders claiming, via the European Court of Human Rights, the four-year average price of Railtrack, about £10 per share. Instead, Railtrack's shareholders were given only £2.60.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/30/transport.Whitehall |title=Rail buy-out too costly for government |newspaper=The Guardian |place=London |first=Lucy |last=Ward |date=30 July 2001 |access-date=20 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130825094658/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/30/transport.Whitehall |archive-date=25 August 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> ''The Times'' reported that Gordon Brown's aide, [[Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera|Shriti Vadera]] e-mailed [[Stephen Byers]] in July 2001 asking: "Can we engineer the solution through insolvency ... and therefore avoid [[Compensation (nationalization)|compensation]] under the [[Human Rights Act 1998|Human Rights Act]]?"<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/railtrack-shares-trial-exposes-ministers-with-a-license-to-steal-x6n3npqtb7h|title=Railtrack shares trial exposes ministers with a license to steal |work=The Times |place=London |first=Simon |last=Jenkins |date=17 July 2005 |access-date=30 June 2018}}</ref>