Our History

In October 2002, Network Rail took over the running of Britain’s rail infrastructure

We were given a mandate by the Government to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the railway.

2002
25 MarchNetwork Rail, a private company limited by guarantee, was established. It was created specifically to acquire Railtrack and provide a safe, reliable and efficient rail infrastructure.
3 OctoberNetwork Rail acquired Railtrack and took over responsibility for Britain’s rail network. Annually, 78.6% of trains are running on time.
2003
31 MarchNetwork Rail publishes its first business plan which sets out the scale of the challenge to rebuild the railway.
24 OctoberNetwork Rail announced the decision to bring all maintenance activity in-house.
12 DecemberRail Regulator publishes Interim Review conclusions allowing Network Rail stable, secure funding of £22 billion over five years.
DecemberInstallation of the Train Protection and Warning System completed. It automatically stops or slows trains that pass a red signal.
2004
31 MarchEnd of our first full year - we achieved 7% reduction in delays and 81.2% of trains arriving on time.
31 MarchOur second Business Plan sets out clearly how we will spend £26 billion over the next five years on operating, maintaining and improving Britain’s railway.
24 May Network Rail reorganised along functional lines, establishing a dedicated maintenance function.
15 JulyGovernment publishes White Paper on the future of Britain’s railway proposing new responsibilities for Network Rail.
24 JulyNetwork Rail completes the maintenance transfer, welcoming 15,594 new employees – thereby doubling the size of the company.
20 SeptemberBritain gets smaller with a 33 minute reduction in journey time from London to Manchester on West Coast Mainline. A similar improvement was delivered for journeys between London and Glasgow.
2005
31 March End of our second full year – we have achieved a further 16% reduction in delays and 83.6% of trains running on time.
31 MarchNetwork Rail shows its ambitions for Britain’s railways in its second Business Plan by raising the bar on its punctuality targets and accelerating improvements to passengers.
4 AprilNetwork Rail takes over responsibility for monitoring and reporting train performance across the industry.
3 NovemberNetwork Rail publishes its first draft Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) which sets out a series of options for growth on the lines into Waterloo station.
12 December Further reduction of up to 20 minutes in journey times between London and Glasgow achieved – in addition to the 33 minute reduction in 2004.
2006
21 MarchRUS for lines into Waterloo is published.
31 MarchAnnual Business Plan published, setting out an ambitious growth agenda and £400m of new money to fund the enhancement of the network.