NETWORK RAIL MUST TAKE MORE MAINTENANCE IN-HOUSE
Monday, 13 January 2003
RAIL union TSSA welcomed today’s statement from Network Rail that it will take over responsibility for railway maintenance in the Reading area when Amey Rail, a maintenance contractor, when its current contract expires.
The union said that this showed the industry was finally waking up to the problems of spiralling cost and poor accountability caused by the rail companies’ ‘contractor culture’.
Recent independent figures have shown that the Government subsidy paid to train operators will reach £1.24bn this financial year, compared to £885m (in today’s prices) spent by government on British Rail in 1989/90.
But TSSA urged that this should not be a one-off and Network Rail should take more infrastructure ‑ including work on renewals ‑ in-house.
TSSA development manager Gerry Doherty said: ”This decision by Network Rail is a very welcome first step on the road to bringing all maintenance work in-house.
“As Network Rail describe this as a ‘significant step in enabling us to improve the efficiency of [railway] maintenance’ we expect the company to repeat this process elsewhere as soon as possible.
“We have consistently urged the industry to reverse the ‘contractor culture’ that has contributed to deterioration in the industry’s performance and the waste of finite resources, including a spiralling public subsidy.”
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For further information, please contact:
Mike Katz, Head of Communications (020) 7529 8033 or 07956 925969 (mobile)
Notes to Editors
1. TSSA represents 32,000 members in administrative, clerical, managerial, professional and technical jobs in the railways, buses, the London Underground, the travel trade, canals, ports and ferries, and road haulage.
2. Source for figures: independent analysis undertaken by Rail Business Intelligence, 09/01/03
