LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Britain is to overhaul the runningof its rail network to give service operators a role in managingthe tracks their trains use to try to improve reliability,British Transport Minister Chris Grayling said on Tuesday.
Grayling said in rail contracts awarded from 2018 in Englandhe wanted the company operating the services to form a jointmanagement team with bosses from Network Rail, the state-ownedgiant currently responsible for maintaining Britain's trackinfrastructure.
"I intend to start bringing back together the operation oftrack and train on our railways," Grayling told the BBC.
Currently companies such as Stagecoach and VirginGroup which together operate trains on Britain's east coast linebetween London and Scotland and Network Rail work separatelyfrom one another.
Grayling said joint management teams would mean that bothsides worked more closely to improve services.
Britain privatised rail services in the 1990s. Since thenpassenger numbers have doubled, leading to overcrowding andputting more pressure on Network Rail to maintain tracks andupgrade infrastructure.
Network Rail was set up in 2002 to replace privatisedoperator Railtrack which had run into financial difficulty andhad been blamed for a series of safety failures that led to anumber of fatal crashes.
Some rail operators, such as Southern, part of GoviaThameslink Railway (GTR), which is 65 percent owned by Go-Ahead alongside France's Keolis, have been criticised bylawmakers and passengers for providing customers with aterrible, unreliable service on their London commuter lines.
Rail companies say some delays are due to the poor serviceprovided by Network Rail.
"When something goes wrong we need the best possiblejoined-up approach to sorting out the problem," Grayling toldBBC radio. "This is about creating a single, joined-up team madeup of members of network rail, members of the train operator."
He said under his plan Britain's tracks would remain instate hands.
The RMT union, whose members are currently involved in along-running dispute with Southern, said it would fight theplans.
"This is the Tory Government dragging the railways back tothe failed and lethal Railtrack model of the private sectorrunning infrastructure," RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said.
"The idea that what Britain's railways need is moreprivatisation is ludicrous."
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Michael Holden)
