page_title: Network Rail
section_title: Responsibilities
hierarchical_section_title: Network Rail / Responsibilities
caption_attribution_description: English: A sign showing the name Network Rail on the signal box at Ledbury railway station, United Kingdom.
context_page_description: Network Rail is the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an arm's length public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways.
  Network Rail's main customers are the private train operating companies, responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating companies, who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. Since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "public sector body".
  To cope with fast-increasing passenger numbers, Network Rail is currently undertaking a £38 billion programme of upgrades to the network, including Crossrail, electrification of lines and upgrading Thameslink.
context_section_description: Network Rail owns the infrastructure, including the railway tracks, signals, overhead wires, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and most stations, but not the passenger or commercial freight rolling stock. It however owns a fleet of departmental stock.
  Although it owns over 2,500 railway stations, it manages only 20 of the biggest and busiest of them, all the other stations being managed by one or other of the various train operating companies (TOCs). Network Rail has a 15-year lease on Square One in Manchester with 800 staff in one of Manchester's largest refurbished office spaces.
  Network Rail should not be confused with 'National Rail'. National Rail is not an organisation, but merely a brand, used to explain and promote a Great Britain-wide network of passenger railway services. The majority of Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic; some lines are freight only. A few lines that carry passenger traffic are not part of the National Rail network (for example the Tyne and Wear Metro (between Pelaw and Sunderland) and the London Underground). Conversely, a few National Rail services operate over track which is not part of the Network Rail network. For example, Chiltern Railways services run on track owned by London Underground between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Amersham.
  The current Chairman is Sir Peter Hendy, and Andrew Haines OBE was appointed as the Chief Executive in August 2018.
caption: Sign showing the Network Rail name on the signal box at Ledbury.
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