How we work
How we are run, who we report to and how we measure our performance
On this page, you can find out all about how we’re organised: from how we’re regulated and funded, through to how we work with our partners across the rail industry.
We believe in being as open and transparent as possible about everything we do, so if there’s anything you want to know but can’t find, then please, get in touch.
We value our stakeholders and aim to develop good, long-term working relationships that are built upon openness, fairness and trust.
We want to make it as easy as possible for our stakeholders to do business with us, and this code of practice is an important part of that, letting you know what you can expect from us every time you deal with us.
Our stakeholders include individuals (for example passengers or lineside neighbours), customers (and owning groups), freight end users, national funders, local funding bodies, investors, passenger representative bodies, companies that form part of our supply chain, regulatory authorities and local government agencies and authorities.
Stakeholder engagement is a fundamental part of how we seek to continuously improve our business performance. We want to be able to focus more precisely on, and drive our business by, the needs of our stakeholders. As the owner and operator of the national railway infrastructure, it is our responsibility to treat stakeholders appropriately and reasonably.
Please see below our stakeholder relations code of practice in which we set out high level principles that we are committed to following when dealing with our stakeholders.
As a public sector arm’s length body, Network Rail retains the commercial and operational freedom to manage Britain’s railway infrastructure in England, Wales and Scotland within regulatory and control frameworks.
As a not-for-dividend organisation, we don’t pay out dividends to shareholders. Instead, any profits we make are invested straight back into improving the railway.
Our board of directors is responsible to the Secretary of State for Transport, and the chair aims to ensure our policies and actions support the wider strategic policies of the Secretary of State and the Scottish Ministers. We are subject to independent regulation by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
This is defined in more detail within our framework agreement with the Department for Transport, setting out how we interact in terms of financial management and corporate governance.
There’s more information below on how we’re managed and regulated.
We’re a public sector company that operates as a regulated monopoly.
Our income is a mix of direct grants from the UK and Scottish Governments, charges levied on train operators that use our network, and income, mainly from our commercial property estate.
This means that the views of our passengers, customers, partners, the Government and the regulator really matter to us.
The governments specify what they need from Britain’s railway and how much they can afford to contribute.
Our independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, sets a framework that specifies the level of fixed income we are allowed to charge and assesses the efficient level of expenditure that we need to run our business and deliver the regulated outputs. It also determines how much revenue we need – more details can be found in our Annual Report.
- Network grants
- 70% – Network grants from the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland
- Track Charges
- 25% – 11 percent of our income comes from fixed track access charges to operators, leaving 14 percent coming from others
- Property income
- 5% – Five percent of our income comes from our national property and station retail portfolio of over 8,200 properties
We are regulated by the Office of Rail and Road for our stewardship of the rail infrastructure.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is the independent economic and safety regulator for Britain’s railway. It has a range of statutory powers to set the contractual and financial framework within which we operate the rail network.
It sets the targets we have to achieve, and reports regularly on our performance, ensuring we carry out our activities efficiently and well, and that we are appropriately funded.
Our board’s accountabilities
We are regulated by the ORR under the Network Licence granted to Network Rail. There are six parts to the licence, covering different areas of operation:
- network management and timetabling
- restrictions on activities
- dealings with third parties
- information requirements
- corporate matters
- standard industry obligations.
Safety regulation
ORR also acts as our safety regulator. We are accountable to ORR for our health and safety performance – but we work closely with a range of industry bodies to continuously monitor and improve safety on the railway.