Bringing Maintenance In-house

Maintenance Work

In July 2004, Network Rail completed the process of bringing rail maintenance in-house. Some 16,000 maintenance staff, a fleet of over 5,000 road vehicles, a network of training centres and almost 600 depots came under our direct control.

In the first year alone, this saved over £100 million.  We aim to save hundreds of millions more over the next three years.

Initially, savings were made by removing duplication between the contractors and Network Rail.  Every year, savings continue to be made through realising efficiencies, embracing new technology, investing in a better-trained workforce and exploiting the significant purchasing power of single national maintenance organisation. 

Efficiency

We are committed to providing real value for money by delivering a safe, reliable railway in the most efficient manner possible.

Our target is to improve efficiency by 31% between April 2004 and March 2009.  This means we aim to reduce the cost of running the railway and get more for every pound that we spend on the infrastructure.

Efficiency is important

The long-term sustainability of the railway requires that Network Rail runs it efficiently. Only an efficient railway will be sustainable in the future. The costs of operating and maintaining the infrastructure escalated significantly in the years before our stewardship of the network commenced.  We had to reduce them.

Our income level is set by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) which funds us only for efficient expenditure.  We will spend £26 billion between 2004 – 2009 which is the equivalent of £14 million every day.  This is a huge amount of money – but the task of upgrading the railway is even bigger. 

If we are going to deliver the improvements in safety and reliability, we have to improve our efficiency too.  In March 2004, a demanding efficiency target of reducing costs by 31% in five years was set.

Results so far

We have made substantial efficiency savings in the last two years and we are well on course to meet the 31% target through:

  • Bringing rail maintenance in-house 
  • Improving the use of technology 
  • Managing projects better 
  • Renegotiating renewals contracts
  • Controlling costs better.

Reducing costs does not mean that we are not investing in the track. On the contrary, since maintenance was brought in-house, Network Rail has invested millions of pounds in:

  • Upgrading depots to provide maintenance workers with better facilities
  • Improving physical access points, IT equipment, plant and small tools
  • Implementing a specific workforce safety campaign
  • Opening new training centres to give technical training to maintenance employees, and management development for managers and supervisors
  • Developing apprentices at Gosport, the largest engineering training centre in Europe and railway engineering students at Sheffield Hallam university..