Network Rail
‘I am now a procurer of all the services the
railway uses in this part of the world. Some I will get from my direct labour force, some I will get from my central suppliers who offer me economies of scale, and some I will get from my local suppliers. But Network Rail, centrally, has such big buying power that it must be able to deliver the most competitive service. It has a head start. In a fair race the central supplier should win every time. But, if the deal is better locally I will take it. ‘For example, if the Ford Transit factory
in Southampton could give me better value vans than Network Rail might buy from Vauxhall nationally, I’ll buy Transit vans.’ The efficiency target from the McNulty
report is to cut £1bn from Network Rail’s costs. With around the same again from passenger franchises. Staff salaries are by far the biggest cost, yet, initially, O’Brien’s regional staff numbers will double. ‘We will get more efficient. Ultimately
that must lead to fewer staff. There won’t be a large head-count reduction as we go through this. But longer-term, if we are more efficient, we will need fewer people.’ He expects an upwards creep in the
punctuality figures. ‘It is a little daunting – the scale of what
we are doing in Wessex is significant. We are starting to catch up with many of the railways that are doing well – Switzerland and Japan for instance. If we can improve our punctuality and safety record still further, we can make the railway in the south west of this country the best-performing railway anywhere. That is the goal.’
Devolution across the regions
Network Rail’s devolved route structure has also gone live in Scotland with David Simpson confirmed as the new route managing director. Work is going ahead on getting three further routes – Wales, Kent/HS1 and London North Western – ready to go live by October 2011. A timetable for further developments linked
to changing Network Rail’s route structures has also been outlined, with a new function called ‘network operations’ to be created in June. Led by Robin Gisby, currently director of operations and customer services, it will absorb and replace operations and customer services. The position of freight director has yet to be established, with the remaining routes to go live no later than March 2012.
JUNE 2011 PAGE 19
Richard O’Brien
www.railimages.co.uk
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