Annual Report and Accounts 2011: Reliability

Improvements

We spent £1.7bn in the year on enhancing the rail network to meet increased demand from rail users and plan to spend £12bn over the control period.

Renewals

We invested £2.2bn in the year on renewing the railway network, including £0.6bn on track.  This level of investment matches that made last year.

Punctuality

Our public performance has reduced slightly from 89.7 per cent to 89.2 per cent largely because of an early and harsh winter.

Safety on the railway is everyone’s responsibility, with Network Rail and our managers directly accountable. We will not compromise on safety, it remains our number one consideration in everything we do.

Train performance was badly affected by the severe weather during November and December 2010. However better planning and rephasing of work resulted in less disruption of the rail network.

Half way through the five-year Control Period 4 we continue to reduce running costs and remain on target to achieve the challenging efficiency savings that we first set out as part of our CP4 Delivery Plan in 2009.

As we create a new devolved regional structure, we are empowering our people to work more directly with our train and freight operating customers, delivering a seven day railway at the same time as a huge capital upgrade and renewals programme.

We will continue to deliver our commitments under Control Period 4 enabling more trains to run on the network, improving punctuality further and making the railway safer.  At the same time we will find ways of doing business better, faster and at a lower cost to meet the demands of CP5.