R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

introduction
14
1.1 1.2 1.3
We have a unique position
at the heart of the rail
industry that enables us
to take a strategic and
co-ordinated view in
developing and delivering
an industry vision
1.1 Introduction
Railtrack owns and operates the rail infrastructure of Great
Britain. We are responsible for maintaining,renewing and
developing the network to meet the needs of train
operators and users,within the context of the
Government’s Integrated Transport Policy objectives.
Our assets include 32,000 kilometres of track and
associated signalling and electrical control equipment
providing a network of more than16,000 route kilometres,
40,000 bridges,tunnels and viaducts,9,000 level crossings,
2,500 stations,90 light maintenance depots and connections
to over 1,000 freight terminals.With the exception of 14
major stations,which we operate, all stations and depots are
leased to train operating companies.
Safety of the network is of paramount importance and
we oversee safety matters relating to contractors and train
and station operators. We formulate and monitor mandator y
network-wide safety standards and have established the
industry Safety Management System,including processes for
the acceptance and monitoring of train company safety
arrangements.
1.2 Strategic planning role
We have a unique position at the heart of the rail industry
that enables us to take a strategic and co-ordinated view in
developing and delivering an industry vision with our
customers and funders designed to satisfy their needs and
expectations.
1.3 Structure of the Statement and the
form of publication
We publish a Great Britain (GB) Statement,and a Scottish
Statement which provides a more detailed focus on our
network in Scotland.
Both Statements set out national plans for the
maintenance, renewal and development of the networ k
together with the analyses,planning and processes that
underpin these plans.
Our national plan is disaggregated into 45 Route
Strategies which are also set out in the Statement.Each
route strategy is derived from:an assessment of the
transport markets served by that route, our customers’
requirements identified through our Account Planning
process, the maintenance and renewal needs on the route
and a joint vision of the long-term development of the
route.These Route Strategies ensure that the railway
infrastructure can deliver the level and quality of service
which our customers require to meet current and foreseen
market needs.
For each customer we also have an Account Plan which
records their business needs and agreed plans to meet these
requirements.
The Statement shows the financial inputs to our plans,
and the physical perfo rmance and quality outputs that we
expect to achieve as a result of this level of expenditure both
in the remaining two years of the current Control Period
and during the five years of the next Control Period.T h e
e f fect on the capability, quality and perfo rmance of the ra i l
n e t wo rk and stations will then be tra c ked over time in future
Statements to show that the expected expenditure benefi t s
h ave been delive r e d .
These measures, and how we expect them to change
over time, can be found in Section 5.
Various editions of this NMS are available:
• GB NMS
• Scotland NMS
• Summary edition
• Welsh language extract
• Website
• Tape version
• PC disk version.
For further info rm a t i o n ,contact the Railtrack Helpline
on 0345 114141 or see our website http://www. ra i l t ra c k . c o. u k