Network Rail Restructure

[WatcherZero]

Network Rail has announced a restructuring plan to try and save money and become more responsive. Each of the 9 routes will have a seperate Managing Director and will be run as independant entities with total control of their ~ £600m budget, work priorities and resources in their area. The central idea is shortening the chain of command and giving local decision making (e.g. the director of Scotland decides what projects go ahead in Scotland not the Chief Exec in London). The first two units Scotland and Wessex will be operational from April with recruitment for the positions begun. These will be a pilot and if sucessful the rest of the routes will become independant soon after. Theirs speculation that this is NR trying to seize the initiative from the McNulty review which reports in.... April and shape its own destiny.

http://business.scotsman.com/business/Network-Rail-moves-to-regional.6721036.jp

 

[Greenback]

It's juts my opinion but I think NR is doomed whatever it does. As a child of New Labour, the government will want to kill it off anyway, even without the other difficulties that have been catalogued in the emdia over the last couple of years.

 

[strange6]

It's juts my opinion but I think NR is doomed whatever it does. As a child of New Labour, the government will want to kill it off anyway, even without the other difficulties that have been catalogued in the emdia over the last couple of years.

What do you think will take its place? A renationalised entity perhaps? This country is in such a bloody mess

 

[Zoe]

What do you think will take its place? A renationalised entity perhaps?

Doubt it, rememeber the Tories are in power.

 

[Greenback]

I don't know what will replace NR, but I'm sure it will be ideologically acceptable to the majority partner in the coalition! My best guess would be an attempt to reinstate a Railtrack type organisation, pointing out that the original would have worked out perfectly had it not been for the deliberate political sabotage by the previous government.

 

[Zoe]

If the NR routes are split into separate entities first then there's no guarantree that any future "Railtrack" company would own all of them.

 

[Greenback]

No, there may be several Railtrack type companies to further complicate the industry!

 

[Zoe]

No, there may be several Railtrack type companies to further complicate the industry!

Or instead of a sale they could decide to grant franchises to run a route to an "Infrastructure Operating Company" in the same was as the TOCs run the trains.

 

[philjo]

So presumably this means that part of the NR new building in MK is now redundant as each region would want its operations base in the area it covers?

 

[Zoe]

So presumably this means that part of the NR new building in MK is now redundant as each region would want its operations base in the area it covers?

Network Rail is a private company and would still need to have a central headquarters unless it is to be split into 9 different private companies. I see no evidence of this though.

 

[Rhydgaled]

I hope the McNulty review suggests, or at least mentions, re-nationalisation. I can think of nothing that would deliver bigger savings than this. Additional measures (such as regional spending decisions) alongside nationalisation could make the future of the railways much brighter. Yes, the Conservatives may not like nationalisation, but it seems to be the most important element of a solution to me. They have been forced to back down over privatising England's woodland and forests, and hopefully the idea of doing the same to rescue helicopters has been killed off too, so perhaps there is some hope that they'll see sence.

 

[Aictos]

Doubt it, rememeber the Tories are in power.

Not this again, tell me again who was the Chancellor who rejected a proposal to take back in public hands, franchises such as Connex and GNER etc...

Oh yeah, that's right Labour's own Darling!

And which party came to power promising to renationalise if they came to power yet did nothing of the sort but rather just carried on regardless?

Oh yeah, Labour again!

 

[Zoe]

Not this again, tell me again who was the Chancellor who rejected a proposal to take back in public hands, franchises such as Connex and GNER etc...

Oh yeah, that's right Labour's own Darling!

And which party came to power promising to renationalise if they came to power yet did nothing of the sort but rather just carried on regardless?

Oh yeah, Labour again!

New Labour are no longer socialist.

 

[greg tingey]

Dare one mention the name: "Coucher" here?

 

[Ploughman]

In the current climate. I hope that any decision will come down on the side of best Cost Benefit. Whichever that may be.
However I have serious doubts that any heed will be taken towards the eventual cost of this.

 

[yorksrob]

Not this again, tell me again who was the Chancellor who rejected a proposal to take back in public hands, franchises such as Connex and GNER etc...

Oh yeah, that's right Labour's own Darling!

And which party came to power promising to renationalise if they came to power yet did nothing of the sort but rather just carried on regardless?

Oh yeah, Labour again!

To be fair, the Conservatives are generally credited with the more successful privatisations such as British Telecom and British Airways (quite fairly IMO) even though these also weren't reversed by New Labour, so it's perhaps unsurprising that they should get the (author coughs) "glory" for the dismemberment of the railway network.

 

[Mystic Force]

This seems like an idea where they can work closer with the TOCs in a region to get something done to improve things. The problem comes if the sectors only "radiate" from london and then only certain types of projects get done. I fear in the current scheem where projects compete nationally worthy scheemes dont get done simply because the cost benefit always comes out lower than a similair scheeme in the London area.

 

[WatcherZero]

Interestingly the latest RAIL claims the McNulty review will recommend that the NR routes are altered to match the franchises to make vertical integration easier. It gives the example of the creation of a Merseyrail route, a Northern route formed from hiving off the Northern franchise parts of NW and NE routes and merging Wessex and Sussex I think it was.

 

[The Planner]

The Welsh will get spilt off as would Scotland i imagine. Merseyrail and Anglia would probably go the same way too.