Rail Regulator rejects doom and gloom for Railtrack

12 June 2001
ORR/17/01

The Rail Regulator, Tom Winsor, today set out his view of Railtrack's future. He stressed delivery, competence and the restoration of reliable and quality services.

Speaking to the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London, he said:

"With the passage of the new Transport Act 2000 and the establishment of the Government's 10-year plan for transport, together with my reforms to the regulatory and contractual regime which will soon be complete, the new financial framework and an SRA which is supportive and positive, Railtrack now has the environment to confound its critics and succeed.

"Railtrack's management has to get a grip of the company's affairs, its relationships with its own suppliers and those to whom it supplies infrastructure services. It must improve its knowledge of its assets and how they behave and interact with one another and with those of others. It needs to become competent and responsive, to behave to the standards to which it would be driven if it did face competition.

"Railtrack should put away the begging bowl, and stop spending valuable management time hawking themselves unwanted round Whitehall, and knuckle down to getting train services back to a sustainable level of reliability and quality of service.

"At present, people do not trust Railtrack to deliver. But the company's destiny is in its own hands. My message to the company is this: forget humility; what we need is delivery."

Background

1. The Rail Regulator is speaking on "The Regulatory Framework" at the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London tonight.
2. He also officially launches two documents at the IEE.
3. The first is a document entitled "Accountability of Railtrack", which describes how Railtrack is accountable to the public interest and its customers in relation to its stewardship of the national rail network. The second is a leaflet entitled "Who Does What?", published jointly with the Strategic Rail Authority. The leaflet describes in general terms the roles of the Rail Regulator, the Strategic Rail Authority and the Health and Safety Executive. It is being widely distributed through stations, mailings and trade journals.
4. Hard copies are available on request from the ORR librarian, Sue MacSwan, Office of the Rail Regulator, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn, London EC1N 2TQ; telephone 020 7282 2001; fax 020 7282 2045; email: rail.library@orr.gsi.gov.uk.

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