Our Vision for the Future

We want Britain’s railway to be world-class – a source of pride for the whole country.  It is already a popular service with high passenger satisfaction levels and record levels of passenger and freight demand.  We want to continue to meet this demand in the future.  

We want to continue to raise the bar on train performance.  We aim to transport more passengers, move more freight, improve safety and reduce delays – all at a reduced cost.

Building on our progress 

Year on year, we are:

• Improving train punctuality - train punctuality has now reached the highest level in recorded history
• Reducing broken rails - we now have the lowest annual total ever at 181 for 2007/ 08.
• Reducing the annual running cost of the railway infrastructure.

Also, through our Route Utilisation Strategies (RUS), we are looking to grow the rail network where passenger and freight demand requires.

Planning for the future

Network Rail published its latest 10 year Business Plan in April 2007. The Plan covers te next ten years but focuses on the activities for the next five years. This provides a detailed blueprint for improving performance and reducing costs through a huge programme of activities.

Key facts

• Rail travel continues to be the safest form of public transport in Britain
• Train punctuality continues to improve despite a near 30% increase in the number of trains running each weekday since privatisation
• 3 million passengers every weekday choose
• During 2007/ 08 we managed an investment programme totalling around £4 billion and delivered over 5,000 individual engineering projects