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Network Rail chief presents to Yorkshire business leaders

A major investment strategy aims to increase passenger numbers, freight and punctuality whilst cutting operating costs across a fifth of UK railways, the route managing director of Network Rail, Phil Verster, has told business leaders at York’s fifth Annual Business Leaders Forum.

During his talk, he revealed a five-year £400m annual investment strategy which aims to deliver a 20 per cent increase in passengers and 25 per cent in freight across the London North Eastern and East Midlands Routes by 2018.

He told a specially-invited audience of business leaders at the event at The Merchant Adventurers Hall, sponsored by HPH Chartered Accountants, York: “At Network Rail we have a passion for our core business, for delivering a better railway for a better Britain. We are focusing on the basics.

“However, to deliver passenger satisfaction and success with, essentially, Victorian infrastructure, we have to be obsessed by what we do and how we do it.

“In order to deliver growth in passengers and freight services whilst also improving train punctuality and reducing operating costs by 18 per cent, we are adopting new ways of working and we are getting much better at listening to the good ideas from our people. Our people hold the key.”

In his presentation, Network Rail – Quietly Getting On With It, Verster, who is based in York, said it was also his aim to reduce serious accidents among those working on the railways to zero.

He said: “The work environment on the railway is very dangerous with fast moving trains, moving equipment, heavy materials and a challenging working environment.

“In spite of our extensive safety training programmes, our well-rehearsed safety processes and our systems for working safely, during the last 10 years four people have died while working on our London North East and East Midlands railways. We want to make our railway among the safest in Europe.”

The London North East and East Midlands routes of Network Rail work very closely with 10 train operators and four freight operators to deliver daily services that carry 184 million passengers per year and moves 58 million freight-tonnes, including 72 per cent of the coal used in power generation.

Verster said that safety at work was a huge undertaking with 560 work sites a week to maintain and renew 4,626 track miles, 5,137 bridges, 2,251 level crossings, 434 stations and 3,313 line buildings.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .