The new infrastructure units will mirror the train operating franchises. Each route will have its own managing director and the massive central bureaucracy that Network Rail inherited from Railtrack eight years ago is to be broken up.
Work will start in April on devolving infrastructure management in Scotland and Wessex, with the latter mirroring the routes operated by South West Trains.
New chief executive David Higgins is pushing through the reforms ahead of the results of an official review of rail costs by former Civil Aviation Authority chairman Sir Roy McNulty.
Mr Higgins believes that devolving network management to semi-autonomous units will improve service and reduce costs.
He said: “Network Rail has saved money and transformed the railway through central control but to make further improvements in all areas we now need to increase responsiveness at a local level.
"We’re devolving accountability to the route level so that we can get closer to our customers and be in a better position to deliver improvements to passengers and freight users, while reducing costs.
"Each new route managing director will, in effect, be running their own infrastructure railway business with significant annual turnover and resources.
“This represents a significant change of emphasis to give our people on the routes the ability and the means to deliver a bigger, better, more affordable railway. However, we’re determined not to undermine the progress that has been made, but to build on the strengths of what we’ve achieved.
"There will continue to be a critical role for a supporting centre that helps make the most of economies of scale. The railway still needs to be planned and operated as a network which operates seamlessly. And we must maintain the company’s focus on efficient and effective management of long-life railway assets.”
Critics fear the move is the first step towards privatisation of railway infrastructure.
Rail unionRMT has also voiced concerns that recent analysis by the Office of Rail Regulation(ORR) into the efficiency of Network Rail was carried out by Railconsult, a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty Rail, which could stand to gain from a sale of Network Rail, and so is not independent.
In a letter to the National Audit Office, RMT general secretary Bob Crow warned that Network Rail was being set up for privatisation through a mixture of poor quality research and pressure from the private sector:
He wrote: “We believe the ORR’s approach to Network Rail efficiency is far from thorough, narrow in scope and has been compromised by its relations with vested interests. The McNulty review into the future efficiency and structure of the railways is jointly sponsored by the ORR which means the rail regulator’s shortcomings, which have already seriously damaged the rail industry, will also lead to a poor deal for the taxpayer and passengers.”
Mr Crow said: “No one believes in reform of Network Rail more than RMT - we want to see the organisation transformed into a genuine public body, properly open and accountable and designed to deliver the highest quality of public service free from the greed of the private sector and the corrosive impact of big-business culture.
“However, all the drive at the moment from the right wing and their allies in the private sector is to rip up the publicly-owned infrastructure and re-privatise it in an action replay of the Railtrack experiment that led to a whole sequence of avoidable disasters on our railways. All the dice have been loaded to achieve that outcome and RMT will continue to expose the manoeuvring that is going on behind the scenes, unravel the distorted reviews and assessments and fight for a genuinely, publicly-owned railway system that ends the rip-off of privatisation.”
Ideas please
In a separate move, Network Rail has set up a new website calling for ideas on how the railways can be better maintained and managed. Its online Innovations and Suggestions Scheme invites people to propose ideas under the following categories:
- Condition monitoring of buildings & civils assets
- Greater business benefit from waste
- Improved power supply and energy
- Low cost fault reporting
- Planning for climate change
- Protective coatings for metallic structures
- Reducing the proximity of people to plant
- Remote condition monitoring of track assets
- Retro-waterproofing of tunnel linings
- Track components
- Track system renewal
If you have any ideas,click here
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
