Network Rail likely to retain control of tracks

Plans by train companies to take control of the rail infrastructure have been rejected just weeks after they were submitted, it emerged yesterday.

John Armitt, the chief executive of Network Rail, confirmed that his organisation would continue to control track and signals. His organisation's business plan for the next 10 years, launched yesterday, contained no reference to the possibility of "vertical integration".

Mr Armitt indicated that he had been "tipped the wink" that his plans for "virtual integration" - where there was simply more co-operation with operators - had met with the approval of ministers.

Stagecoach and Great North Eastern Railways last week called for trials of integration as part of their submissions to a government review of the structure of the industry.

But Mr Amitt has convinced ministers that the only way to deliver improvements agreed with the Rail Regulator, Tom Winsor, is by ensuring that one company, insisting on uniform standards, takes charge of the whole system. Last week the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, gave backing to Mr Armitt's view. He said: "There is one railway. It needs to be run in a way that is consistent."

The business plan confirmed that NR would spend £26bn over the next five years as part of its plan to increase the number of trains running on time from 80 per cent to 90 per cent.

Iain Coucher, NR's deputy chief executive, said it was trying to work out a way of presenting train punctuality figures which made more sense to passengers. At the moment statistics give the percentage of trains running on time across all of an operator's lines.