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Network Rail
Corporate Responsibility Report 2010
Moving ahead
Building a sustainable future
Rail freight is playing a key role in Britain’s
drive to become a low carbon economy
Building a sustainable future
Rail carries over 100 million tonnes of
freight per year – and the market is
growing. Taking freight by rail rather
than road reduces CO2 emissions by
76 per cent, helping to improve
Britain’s carbon footprint
Contents
1 Foreword
2 Chief Executive’s message
6 Corporate responsibility governance
8 Our workplace
14 Our stations and passengers
18 Our communities
24 Sustainable supply chain
28 The environment
34 Report card – our progress If you have any feedback about this report please email
36 Bureau Veritas’ independent assurance statement corporate.responsibility@networkrail.co.uk
Foreword
Every year our passengers make 1.3bn journeys and we transport
over 100 million tonnes of freight on our network. Railways link
our greatest cities, our towns, our rural communities and our
most remote scenic areas. Some five million people are
lineside neighbours.
An affordable and sustainable rail service is a key part of Passengers are at the heart of what we do and we are
an integrated transport system, fit for the 21st century. committed to improving their experience of the railway
Rail is Britain’s safest form of surface transport and one by increasing capacity, affordability and accessibility on
of the greenest. It is the best way for millions of people our network.
to get to and from work every day; quickly, efficiently
Our 37,000 people are key to making this happen. We are
and safely. Network Rail keeps Britain moving.
committed to attracting the most talented and diverse
As an organisation, we believe that corporate individuals to join Network Rail and to providing them
responsibility is all about doing the right thing – right with a safe and healthy workplace and a rewarding and
for rail users, right for our customers, our people and long-lasting career.
the environment, and right for the communities in
We work closely with local communities, benefiting the
which we work.
people and the environment around our 20,000 miles of
track, balancing the need to keep the railway safe and
reliable, with our commitment to our neighbours and
other stakeholders.
We’re also working hard to make more sustainable
decisions throughout our supply chain and to reduce our
impact on the environment. We believe that rail is key to
building Britain’s low carbon economy.
We’re investing in a sustainable future for us all.
We’re investing in a sustainable
future for our people, our
communities and our planet.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 1
Chief Executive’s message
Our Chief Executive, Iain Coucher, But we also face some new challenges. The economic
downturn has seen some parts of our sector struggle.
chairs our Corporate Responsibility In some areas there has been growth in passenger
Group and champions sustainability numbers – especially long distance, but in others the
across the Company. growth has been flat or, in one or two areas, has declined.
And the economic climate has hit the freight business
What has happened over the past 12 months in quite dramatically.
terms of corporate responsibility and sustainability
Yet despite this, we see universal support for continued
at Network Rail?
investment in rail. The benefits to the country and to
Network Rail has had a good year, especially in the
the economy are widely understood and major schemes
context of corporate responsibility. We have continued
such as Airdrie-Bathgate in Scotland, and Thameslink
to drive cost efficiency within the business because we
in the South East, are well into construction. And new
understand how providing a good railway – an affordable
schemes are being discussed such as Crossrail and
and sustainable rail service as part of an integrated
a new high-speed railway.
transport system fit for the 21st century – contributes
to the success of the country. This helps to increase Corporate responsibility is all part of how we deliver this
productivity and improve the quality of life and the ever improving service. This year we were delighted to
environment within Britain. be awarded gold in the Business in the Community
Corporate Responsibility Index and to take home two Big
This year, we have seen all our key measures of success
Tick awards. It’s great to receive this recognition for our
achieved and we now have record numbers of people
continued investment in our people, and our positive
making record numbers of journeys on record numbers of
impact on the community.
trains. And punctuality, passenger satisfaction and safety
performance are also at record levels. A great example of our ongoing commitment to
corporate responsibility in 2010 was our ‘Jobs for the
Girls’ campaign, designed to address the perceptions
of the rail industry amongst women. This campaign
helped contribute to an 84 per cent increase in female
This year we were delighted applicants for our Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme –
a fantastic result!
to achieve gold status in the
Business in the Community
Corporate Responsibility Index.
2 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Another milestone this year was obtaining planning The current industrial tension is as a result of making
permission for our new National Centre in Milton Keynes. changes in our working practices. It is complex, but I
This will be a modern, efficient and environmentally believe our people understand the need for change and
friendly office, designed to bring together key activities, are willing to support it. For everybody, job security and
including teams from finance, property, asset management, opportunities for the future come from a successful and
and planning. Working with the local community in Milton expanding railway.
Keynes, we intend to create a world-class facility, built to
And it hasn’t deterred people from applying for jobs at
reflect the latest thinking in green buildings.
Network Rail. Throughout the year, we have seen a steady
increase in the number of people applying to join us. They
How does Network Rail manage corporate
have seen or heard about the projects in which we are
responsibility? How do you personally show
involved – some of the most complex and challenging
leadership in this area?
engineering projects undertaken in the UK. And they
Like many things, leadership comes from everybody,
want to be a part of it.
not just those at the top of organisations. Everybody
– irrespective of where they work or what they do – We continue to be oversubscribed on our flagship
makes a difference. Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme; this year, we
received around 10,000 applications for 217 places
That said, it remains a passion of mine and it is,
on our 2010/11 scheme. And all of our graduate
in my view, right and proper that the Chief Executive
schemes – engineering, project management and
demonstrates a personal commitment. For this reason
general management – were also heavily oversubscribed.
I chair our Corporate Responsibility Group, a group that
We remain an employer of choice for these and many
looks at the business from a different perspective; a
other men and women who want to join us in delivering
cross-functional view of how corporate responsibility
the railway of the future.
links to all the different things we are doing. And it is a
group that draws people in from various areas of the
How do you see Network Rail’s role in the community?
organisation and from all levels. Its members are not
Network Rail’s operation is wide and diverse. We
exclusively people from head office.
operate in all but four of the 632 parliamentary
To support our efforts we have also published a constituencies in Britain. In heavily built up areas, in
Sustainability Policy. This is a simple, but comprehensive remote and scenic areas, and in the rural communities
approach designed to reach every one of our 37,000 throughout Britain.
people. In the coming year we will be doing more to
We have, we believe, around five million lineside
communicate and implement this policy and make it
neighbours – people who live or work alongside the
real for every one of us at Network Rail.
railway. For them, the railways provide vital links with the
rest of the country, but also can, if not carefully managed,
With the complex industrial relations situation
be a source of irritation. With increasing use of the
over the past year, do you believe that Network
railways, the essential maintenance and improvement
Rail is still an employer of choice?
works frequently need to be undertaken at night and at
Network Rail is a large organisation, with some 37,000
weekends. We are sensitive to this and have worked hard
people working the length and breadth of Great Britain,
to improve the speed at which we respond to lineside
24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including Christmas Day!
issues raised by our neighbours. Towards the end of
Our world is changing and we need to change with it.
2009/10 we began to hit our target of resolving
We continue to see growth in demand – even during the
90 per cent of these issues within 20 days.
current economic climate. Over the next 25 years, we
expect the numbers of passenger journeys to rise by We are also conscious of the tragic effect that suicides
between 40 per cent in the South East of England, and have on local communities and on staff. Whilst the
100 per cent in the other urban areas of the country. number of suicides in the country has been dropping for
a number of years, it has remained steady around the
People will expect more trains to be running throughout
railway at around 220-240 per year for some time now.
the day – earlier in the morning, later into the evening,
at weekends and on bank holidays. For Network Rail to This year, we announced a new multi-million pound
accommodate this increased demand, we need to change partnership with The Samaritans, intended to reduce
what we do and how we do it. And this means change the number of suicides on the railway by 20 per cent by
amongst our people. 2015. For the first time, we are providing much greater
coordination and focus to the localised activities aimed
at addressing this difficult issue. We hope that the impact
we have through our joint approach will bring about a
significant change for the benefit of society, our staff
and our communities.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 3
Chief Executive’s message
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity – projects to incorporate the large scale use of photovoltaic
as one of the largest landowners in Britain, do you (PV) cells. We want to use the PV cells as part of the
think Network Rail is doing enough to protect and station roof design which will supply up to 70 per cent of
enhance biodiversity? the station’s power needs. We will continue to look at the
Much of our land consists of ‘green corridors’, sitting opportunities that are available to us to see how we can
alongside 20,000 miles of railway track. These corridors continue to reduce our environmental impact.
provide a habitat to support the movement and
proliferation of wildlife and biodiversity, often within How will you keep sustainability on the Company’s
an urban environment. agenda with all the pressure to reduce costs?
Reducing costs is all part of the economic pillar of
sustainability. By reducing the running costs of the railway
This year we received around 10,000 we can continue to compete against alternative forms of
applications for 217 places on our transport. An affordable railway will attract more
passengers, meaning our fixed costs are proportionally
Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme. lower, and rail can be more affordable for all.
This year, we reduced the cost of running the railway by
£265m. And we will do even more next year.
We manage our corridors in a way that tries to balance
the need to keep the railway safe and reliable for the Increasingly, costs savings will come from smarter working
millions of people who use it, with the needs of the with our customers and our supply chain partners –
environment. This, from time to time, does mean we need challenging the conventional wisdom about how things
to carry out active land and tree management, such as are done and who does them. We welcome the initiatives
trimming vegetation and felling trees, but we never do that see train operating companies undertaking work on
more than we have to do, and always in a sensitive way. the stations we lease to them; and we have seen bigger
projects started such as Evergreen 3, a programme funded
We are responsible for 146 Sites of Special Scientific
by Network Rail, but delivered by Chiltern Rail.
Interest in England, as well as others in Scotland and
Wales. These areas are protected by law, as they are Over the five years of the control period between
important to the nation’s natural heritage, and we 2009 and 2014, we will deliver £5.3bn worth of savings.
continue to manage and nurture them. This will be a 24 per cent reduction in the cost of running
the railway, on top of the 27 per cent reduction already
We continue to work closely with local communities
delivered between 2004 and 2009.
and authorities, as well as stakeholders such as Natural
England, Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural
What has Network Rail done in terms of
Heritage and the RSPB to protect and enhance our
sustainable procurement over the past 12 months?
natural environment.
Network Rail is a major procurer of materials – in
particular, ballast, steel track, transmission oil, fuel
Why doesn’t Network Rail get more energy from
and paper, as well as steel, timber and concrete used
renewable sources like wind and solar power?
in the manufacture of sleepers. It is on these seven key
Network Rail is a big purchaser of electricity – especially
materials that we have concentrated our efforts on
power for electric trains. Our annual electricity bill is
sustainable procurement.
around £298m and the railway consumes around one per
cent of all electricity generated in Britain. As the electricity For example, we continue to seek ways to reuse and
companies move towards wind and solar power, rail’s recycle these materials – such as the use of ballast
carbon footprint will benefit from this. cleaning techniques that take old and ‘tired’ ballast,
clean it and reuse it. Next year we will do this at our new
We have looked at whether we can use our land to provide
recycling centre, at Whitemoor Yard depot. The majority
areas for the generation of renewable electricity – such as
of cleaned ballast will be sold on as aggregates, but a
wind and solar but, given the nature of our land, which is
small amount will actually be put back onto our track
long and thin, and in towns, cities and communities, there
beds. This type of initiative shows the value of sustainable
is little realistic scope for doing this.
thinking – we use less raw materials, reduce the amount
However we are looking at other opportunities to of waste we send to landfill, and make money from selling
generate renewable energy from our assets. For example, on our recycled materials – great news all round.
the Blackfriars station redevelopment, due for completion
in early 2012, is scheduled to be one of our first major
4 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Our immediate goal is that 25 per cent of our spend What will you be asking people to do in their
on seven of our key materials will come from sustainable day-to-day jobs to make the Company more
sources by 2014. But this is only the beginning; we will sustainable in 2010/11?
continue to look right through our supply chain to become Simply to continue on the journey of sustainability. We
more sustainable. And it’s not just about environmental want to encourage people to make the right decisions as
issues, but about the ethical considerations, such as second nature – sustainable decisions.
diversity, equality and human rights.
This is good for the Company but more importantly,
There is a lot to do and it is encouraging that we see a is good for our people, our communities and our planet.
great commitment from the companies in our supply
chain to come on this journey with us.
How does Network Rail compare with other
leading companies in managing corporate
responsibility/sustainability? Iain Coucher
Good companies learn from great companies and we Chief Executive
continue to have an excellent working relationship with June 2010
those that are considered to be the very best. I and the
rest of the members of our Corporate Responsibility
Group were fortunate to spend time with the equivalent
team from the Olympic Delivery Agency this year. They
are world leaders and this provided much inspiration for
us to continue with our plans.
And we were delighted to achieve gold status in the
Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility
Index, moving from bronze to silver to gold in just three
years. This demonstrates that we are up there with
the best, and we believe that we compare well – but
there is still much we can learn and do to become
more sustainable.
An affordable and sustainable
rail service is a key part of an
integrated transport system,
fit for the 21st century.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 5
Corporate responsibility governance
As an organisation, we believe that The remit of CRG includes developing the strategy
and objectives necessary to deliver our sustainability
corporate responsibility is all about goals, as well as developing measurable targets for
doing the right thing – right for rail users, sustainability and monitoring the progress and success
right for our customers, for our people of these activities.
and the environment, and right for the
communities in which we work. Responsibility in action
Our dedicated corporate responsibility team and
specialists across the Company have continued to work
Leadership for corporate responsibility in support of our Sustainability Policy and corporate
The Network Rail leadership team provides the
responsibility strategy throughout 2009/10.
strategic direction for corporate responsibility through
our Corporate Responsibility Group (CRG), which met Initiatives in 2009/10 have included an audit of the
five times in 2009/10. The group is made up of senior sustainability practices of our major infrastructure
Network Rail representatives and is chaired by our Chief projects, environmental briefings for our media and
Executive Iain Coucher. communications specialists, and the creation of a
sustainability steering group for our Crossrail programme.
This year, CRG meetings have included a site visit to
the London 2012 Olympics to share best practice on Throughout the year we have responded to a number
sustainability, and regular agenda items on equality and of Government and third party consultations relating to
diversity, environmental strategy, the Carbon Reduction corporate responsibility issues including carbon trading,
Commitment, and the Business in the Community accessibility, environmental permits and noise. We have
Corporate Responsibility Index. also continued to participate in the cross-industry
Sustainable Rail Programme, facilitated by the
Two new members joined our CRG in March 2010: Patrick
independent health and safety body, the Rail Safety
Butcher, Group Finance Director, and Catherine Doran,
and Standards Board.
Director, Corporate Development.
In 2010 we issued a new Code of Business Ethics which
In February 2010, the terms of reference and remit
replaces our existing business conduct policy. The code
of the group were reviewed and approved by our
applies to all Network Rail’s activities and sets out the
Executive Committee.
minimum standards expected from all employees
and Directors in their dealings with our internal and
external customers.
Our Sustainability Policy
Social Environment Economic
Community • Air quality Marketplace – customers,
• Linesiden eighbours • Noise and vibration suppliers and funders
and visual intrusion • Waste and pollution • Capacity
• Social commitment • Land use and biodiversity • Government policy and subsidy
• Community relationships • Water and material use • Purchasing and procurement
• Heritage • Climate change • Asset management (including
(including energy use) climate change adaptation)
Workplace – our people
• Regional economic development
• Employee relations
• Affordability and external
• Employee health
cost/benefits to society
• Employee development
• Social inclusion
Social
Marketplace – passengers
• Train service performance
• Safety and personal security
• Priorities, perception
and experience
• Accessibility Environment Economic
• Travel information
Sustainable development (or sustainability) “Development that meets the needs of the present, without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Brundtland Commission, 1987
6 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Talking about corporate responsibility Safety
Corporate responsibility and sustainability have featured
regularly in our internal communications during 2009/10, Rail continues to be the safest form of surface
covering topics such as sustainable procurement, transport in Britain. We’re committed to running
community safety, and charitable giving. a business that is safe for passengers, our people,
our contractors and for the public. Over the last
Measurement and monitoring year we have:
Our Company-wide balanced scorecard programme • reduced the safety risk to passengers associated
involves regular reporting of our environmental with our activity by almost 15 per cent
sustainability index and other key performance indicators.
• decreased our workforce accident frequency rate to
0.16 reportable accidents per 100,000 hours worked
Looking to the future
We are currently developing a comprehensive • helped reduce trespass and vandalism on the rail
implementation plan for our Sustainability Policy. This is network by 48 per cent in our top 100 locations
being consulted on both internally and externally and will • won gold for our Safety 365 workforce safety film
be reviewed again by our Corporate Responsibility Group ‘What happened…’ at the International Visual
in 2010. We will report more fully on this plan in our next Communications Association Awards
corporate responsibility report.
• held over a hundred level crossing safety events
In 2010/11 we will conduct further environmental across Britain, targeting users with the message
communications and behaviour change campaigns ‘Would it Kill you to Wait?’.
aimed at motivating our employees to reduce, reuse
and recycle. For more information on our safety performance,
please see our 2010 Annual Report and Accounts
We also aim to increase our score in the 2010/11 Business and our online 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report.
in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index by at
least two per cent compared to our 2009/10 rating.
Awards
This year we have won three top business awards Big Tick winner
for corporate responsibility, recognising our The Business in the Community Awards for Excellence
achievements which include improving the skills identify and celebrate companies who have a positive
of our workforce and reducing railway crime. impact on the community, environment, marketplace
and workplace.
Going for gold
For the past three years we have benchmarked our Network Rail has been re-awarded two Big Ticks in the
corporate responsibility performance against leading 2010 Awards for Excellence in the areas of Talent and
companies in the Business in the Community Corporate Active Communities.
Responsibility Index.
The Big Tick for Talent award recognises the strength of
This year we increased our score by five per cent to our leadership and training programmes, including our
reach a rating of gold (2008/09: silver). The index score apprenticeship scheme, which trains more than 200
is calculated by assessing our performance on a range of young people each year in track, signalling, and
business activities including employee engagement and electrification and plant engineering.
development, our management of our environmental
The Active Communities award is recognition of the
impacts, our work with communities, and our social
continued work of our dedicated community safety
impact on Britain.
team to reduce railway crime, save lives and keep trains
Overall, we continue to score highly across all sections of running. Our work with world boxing champion Amir
the index compared to the index average and our sector Khan’s Gloves community gym is well documented,
average. Our 2009/10 score was 6.5 per cent above the but we have built on this success and formed new
average rating for companies measured by the index. partnerships with other local clubs including the Heart
of Portsmouth Boxing Club and St Josephs Community
Centre in Cardiff. Both have given local young people
the chance to be involved with positive activities helping
to steer them away from the dangers of taking risks on
the railway.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 7
Our workplace
We are pioneering new ways to support
the talent of today and tomorrow.
Providing a great place to work to
over 37,000 employees.
www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Our National Centre
We’ve designed a building with
sustainability at its heart.
Our National Centre will bring
together key activities, including
teams from finance, property,
asset management and
planning, into one location.
We are committed to building
the centre to achieve a BREEAM
Excellent rating, with many
environmental features.
Valuing our people
We measure employee
engagement through an
annual 12 question survey
run independently by Gallup.
70%
Over 70 per cent of our
employees participated in
our annual Q12® engagement
survey last year. Our grand
mean has increased from 3.16
to 3.80 since we began in 2002.
8 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Keeping safe
M in a ni and mproving the
n
Maintaining and impr h
safety of our workforce will
fety
safe y u c will
alw
wa be our ority ity
ty.
always be our priority.
Jobs for the Girls
the end 2009/10, u
d 2009 1
At the end of 2009/10, our
We want to attract the most rkforc
workforce accident frequency
workforc acc en r quency
talented people to work with us. ate as epo
rate was own t .1 report
rate was dow to 0.16 reportable
accidents per 100,000 hours
e 0,000
,00
a cident per 100,00
Increasing gender diversity in
ork d
worked.
the rail and engineering sectors
is never easy and we continually Ou nat ational
Our nati al workforce safetye
strive to expand our talent pool. communications campaign
c on aign,
Safe i on
Saf ty 365, is built on the
Our ‘Jobs for the Girls’ campaign
o y keepin
philosophy of ke ng anyone
in 2010 helped contribute to an
work nd
who works on or around the
84 per cent increase in female
rail a ever
railway, safe and healthy eve y
applicants for our Advanced
ve y e
minute of every day of the year.
Apprenticeship Scheme.
Staying healthy
The health of our people is vital
to the success of our Company.
Last year we introduced new
health initiatives including a
health fair pilot scheme and an
awareness campaign for our
24/7 counselling service,
Care First.
Developing our people
We’re pioneering new ways to In 2009 we won the Business
support the talent of today and in the Community Award for
tomorrow. Excellence in Talent for our
continued investment in
£41m our people.
Last year, 233 young people
Our new Walsall Training Centre joined our apprenticeship
was completed in 2010 as part of scheme. Over the next five years
our £41m long-term investment we will continue to train over a
in modern vocational centres. thousand skilled technicians.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 9
Our workplace
We believe that our people are our most Winner of Awards for Excellence
valuable asset, and we aim to attract as Our continued investment in talent has been recognised
as best in class. In 2009, Network Rail won the Serco
many talented and diverse individuals Talent Award, in association with the Talent & Enterprise
to join Network Rail as possible. Once Taskforce, at the annual Business in the Community
with us, we provide them with a safe Awards for Excellence. The awards are the UK’s most
and healthy workplace and a rewarding influential, independent, peer-assessed corporate
responsibility awards. They recognise and celebrate those
and long-lasting career. companies who have shown innovation, creativity and a
sustained commitment to corporate responsibility.
Investing in people
In particular, we were credited for our comprehensive
Network Rail is one of the biggest investors in vocational
approach and the continued positive impact of our
training and development in Britain. In 2009/10 we
programmes. In 2009/10 this has included delivery of
spent £26.8m on vocational training and provided
over 12,000 delegate days of track safety training and
186,473 training days to our people – a huge investment
75,000 delegate days of infrastructure maintenance
in our future.
technical training. This year we were also proud to launch
Leading & Managing Teams, the first management
Supporting talent qualification to be offered by a UK employer with
We continue to support the engineers, technicians and awarding body status from the Qualifications and
project managers of the future through our graduate Curriculum Authority (QCA).
scheme, sponsored MSc, and our award-winning three
year Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme, one of the largest
in Britain. The 233 young men and women who joined as Backing Young Britain
apprentices in 2009 have spent their first year studying In 2009 we participated in the Government-backed
technical, practical and personal development activities scheme Backing Young Britain and the Graduate Talent
at Europe’s largest specialist engineering training centre, Pool initiative, giving 18 unemployed graduates an eight
HMS Sultan in Gosport, Hampshire. They live and work week paid work placement which also included skills
alongside the Royal Navy, sharing modern recreation training to help them find future employment. Four of our
and sports facilities. graduates who showed real promise, were offered short
term contracts to extend their stay in the Company.
We also partner with top universities, run a coaching
programme, have a state-of-the-art leadership
development centre and much more – all with the
aim of developing our existing people, and the next
generation, to be the best.
We are one of the biggest investors
in vocational training in Britain,
spending £26.8m last year.
10 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Championing diversity Gender diversity
In 2009/10, we set clear objectives and business Increasing gender diversity is a challenge across the
aims in order to champion a diverse and inclusive rail and engineering sectors. Women make up a large
workplace, including: talent pool that is significantly untapped, with women
comprising just 9 per cent of UK engineering professionals
• widening our talent pool by attracting more
compared to 26 per cent in Sweden, 20 per cent in Italy
diverse applicants
and 18 per cent in Spain (source: UKRC).
• increasing the number of women and black,
Since 2008 we have been carrying out internal research to
Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in under-
help us better understand why more women do not apply
represented roles and reflecting the locations and
for certain jobs, like signalling.
the communities which we serve
In January 2010, we launched a campaign to encourage
• attracting more great candidates into the rail
more women to consider a career in rail. This ‘Jobs for
and engineering sectors.
the Girls’ campaign contributed to a promising 84 per
cent rise in female applicants for our apprentice
Equality and diversity action plan scheme this year. However, only four per cent of our
This year we have appointed an Equality and Diversity overall apprenticeship applicants were female, so we
Manager, and begun the roll-out of a comprehensive will continue to work hard to promote this and all of
equality and diversity action plan. This includes an online our schemes over the coming year.
e-learning programme on diversity awareness, and a suite
of key diversity measures. We continue to work with the
race diversity campaign Race for Opportunity.
Cultural diversity
The majority of our workforce is white male, and we
We collect and publish data on gender, ethnicity and are working towards attracting more BAME employees,
age diversity to help us monitor our progress. Our who currently make up 4.4 per cent of our workforce. We
policies encourage employees to report inappropriate or recognise that the rail industry has traditionally appealed
unacceptable behaviour to their line manager, human to a white male demographic, so this year we carried out
resources department or confidential helpline via our targeted recruitment at our new National Centre. This has
Speak Out procedure. seen a significant number of BAME applicants at 27 per
cent with 18 per cent appointed to roles. We will continue
to develop our recruitment advertising in order to attract
a diverse mix of applicants.
Equality and diversity
Over the past year, the gender diversity of our The ethnic diversity of our workforce has
workforce has remained unchanged at 87.3 per cent increased very slightly over the last year, with
male and 12.7 per cent female. The percentage of BAME employees now making up 4.4 per cent
female applicants to our graduate scheme remained of the total (2008/09: 3.8 per cent). In part this
comparatively high at 20 per cent. However in 2010, may be due to improved data as the number of
women made up just 4 per cent of applicants to our employees who did not declare their ethnicity
apprenticeship scheme – a slight increase on the has reduced by 1.2 per cent over the past year.
2.3 per cent of applicants in 2009, but our aim is to
improve on this over the coming year.
Gender diversity of the Network Rail workforce Ethnic diversity of the Network Rail workforce
April 2010
100 80 April 2009
April 2010
87.3 69.1 69.7
75 60
Percentage
Percentage
50 40
7
27.1 25.9
25 20
12.7
3.8 4.4
0 0
Male Female White BAME Undeclared
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 11
Our workplace
Our award winning apprentice scheme has gone to work on health surveillance to minimise the risks
from strength to strength with the number of BAME associated with noise, vibration, night work or
applicants up by 32 per cent. The same is true of hazardous substances.
our graduate scheme, where the number of BAME
applicants is up 30 per cent from last year. We expect Communication and consultation
26 per cent of our next graduate intake will come from A key factor in emotional well-being at work is successful
BAME backgrounds. communication. We believe that communication and
We remain committed to developing a workforce that dialogue create the right environment for employee
is reflective of the communities in which we operate. engagement, and we use a wide range of communications
tools to reach our people. As well as face to face briefings
and team meetings, we use videos, our internal magazine
Healthy initiatives and intranet site, email news bulletins, our Chief
8,000 As well as where and how they work, we have a more
general responsibility to our people for their health and
Executive’s blog and an annual Business Briefings road
show which was attended by around 8,000 employees
employees attended our well-being. We collect and analyse health and well-being
Business Briefings in 2009.
in 2009. We strongly believe in the importance of
data from periodic staff medicals and from referrals to
consultation on issues affecting our people, and in
our occupational health and well-being provider, BUPA.
2009/10 this has included continuation of discussions
This helps us to identify our top health issues so that
with the trade unions on the modernisation of terms
we can develop programmes to address them.
and conditions of employees from our Infrastructure
In 2009/10 we introduced initiatives such as Maintenance function.
physiotherapy services for employees suffering a
work-related accident and we piloted an online personal Reward and recognition
health assessment tool for employees as part of our Reward and recognition is also an important part
Positive Health Programme. of employee engagement. Our annual You Make
We also created a DVD to raise awareness of Care First, the Difference awards celebrate our colleagues
a 24/7 counselling and information service available who have made an outstanding contribution and
to all Network Rail employees. Further initiatives have who best demonstrate our values of determination,
included a booklet called ‘There is only one you’, aimed respect, teamwork and pride. In 2009 1,256 employee
at empowering our people to take control of their own nominations were received (2008: 1,159) and 43
emotional health, and a Health Fair guidance pack for individuals and teams were short-listed with 18
managers to run local health events. We also continue overall commendations and winners.
Q12® employee engagement
We measure employee engagement through completed the Q12® survey in 2009 up from 66.4 per
an annual survey (Q12®), which has been run cent in 2008. The results form a framework for
independently by Gallup every year since 2002. discussion within teams, who create action plans to
focus on ways to further build engagement.
All employees are invited to take part in the anonymous
survey either by post, phone or web. Response rates We use the results of the Q12® survey as a key measure
remain high, averaging 69.8 per cent over the last three of business performance. Our long-term aspiration is to
years – a total of 26,903 (72.4 per cent) of our people score within the top 25 per cent of the overall Gallup
Q12® database (comprising the scores of all 504
participating organisations). Since we began Q12® in
Annual employee engagement survey – Gallup Q12® 2002, our engagement score has increased by 16.8 per
cent, which is great progress but falls short of our 2009
4 target of achieving a grand mean score of 4.21.
3.75 3.80
3.68
3.45 3.53
3.35 3.38
3.16
3
Score
2
1
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Grand mean
12 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
A great place to work – our National Centre
In 2012, we will open our new National Centre in
Milton Keynes. It is being constructed on the site of
the former National Hockey Stadium and will be built
to high environmental standards. The National Centre
will bring long-term investment to the local economy,
and construction begins in the summer of 2010.
The National Centre will bring together key activities
(including teams from finance, property, asset
management and planning) into one location to enable
us to work better and to provide an outstanding level of
service to our customers.
encourage diverse habitats for flora and fauna,
It will also incorporate environmental and positive
and designing the building to take advantage of
health features. It will be light and airy, with a relaxed
the prevailing winds on the site which will remove
and open working environment.
the need for air conditioning.
We are committed to building our National
The building is designed to use a third less water than
Centre to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, putting
a building reliant on traditional water supplies. The
sustainability at the heart of the building design. Some
construction will involve locally sourced new materials
of the initiatives we are working on include living roofs
and some of the materials from the demolished stadium
for the centre and landscaping the surrounding area to
will be recycled.
Our building will be in the heart of the city and our aim is
to make it part of the heart of the community. We have
recently established a partnership with the British Trust
for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV). This begins in June
2010 and sees us fund a local post for the BTCV which
will help regenerate ecological sites around the city.
We have designed a building with
sustainability at its heart.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 13
Our stations and passengers
More trains, more seats, better journeys.
We’re committed to enhancing the
experiences of our passengers.
www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Accessibility on our network
We are committed to giving At Leeds Station, we are
greater access to many busy improving accessibility as part of
stations that only have step our new station travel plan.
access, and to improving
end-to-end journeys for
passengers. 3
We installed an innovative
£378m raised platform module at three
stations last year to enable easier
As part of the ‘Access for All’ access to trains.
programme, 40 stations in Britain
have been given accessible routes
with 108 additional routes to be
completed by 2015.
Sustainable stations
Mix g
Mixing sustainable features
Mixi a ur
d architect
rchi ectur s
c t
and Grade listed architectu e is
f th ng s
g
just one of the challenges we
n bu
building the sustainable
face in bu u
us a n b
to t future
re.
stations of the futuree
From solar pan ls at King’s
From ar anr anel t Kinging’
C s barge tr nsp
e ra po
ransport key e
Cross to b ge transport of key
materials as part of the Blackfriars
e l ar
art
mater als as pa of h a kfriars ia
iar
furbish en we ar comm tt
b shment, are mit
refurbishment, we are committed
o akin sustainable
ing ustai
to making sustainable
enhancements where possible.
a eme ent
enhancements ere os ible.
14 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Railway heritage
Building on our past is an integral
part of enhancing our future.
Balancing the respect for architectural
heritage and sustainable design can be
challenging, as exemplified by our
refurbishment of Kings Cross Station in
London. This refurbishment highlights
how listed and environmental features
can work hand-in-hand. The project is
scheduled to include photovoltaic cells
on the stations historic train shed roofs.
Our passengers
Passenger numbers have grown
substantially in the last decade,
while punctuality, passenger
satisfaction and safety
performance continues
to reach record levels.
83%
Of passengers were satisfied with
their journey last year.
15%
The safety risk to passengers
associated with Network Rail
activity fell by almost 15 per cent
during 2009/10.
We are committed to providing
the best possible service on
Britain’s railways.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 15
Our stations and passengers
Passengers are at the heart of what we a £378m ‘Access for All’ fund, which is introducing
significant access improvements at stations across
do. We aim to provide them with more the country.
trains, more seats and better journeys.
Improving accessibility is not an easy task as Britain’s
We are committed to making their railway network has over 2,500 stations, many of which
experience of the railway more positive were built in the Victorian era and were not designed to
by increasing accessibility and by meet the needs of passengers with reduced mobility.
managing our heritage structures for Based on levels of use, 13 stations in Scotland and 135
stations in England and Wales were chosen to have
the changing and growing demands accessible routes installed as part of the programme
of today’s railway. by March 2015. By the end of March 2010, 40 of these
stations were complete.
More trains, more seats… At local level we are working with train operating
Passenger numbers have grown substantially in the companies and other key stakeholders to assist in
last decade to levels not seen for nearly a century and application for, and implementation of, ‘Access for All
every indication is that such growth will continue. Over Small Scheme’ projects. At national level we continue to
the next 25 years, we expect the numbers of passenger work with the DfT and Transport Scotland in reviewing
journeys rise by between 40 per cent (in the South East applications and identifying small scheme projects to
of England) and 100 per cent (in the other urban areas of be progressed.
the country). Our CP4 delivery plan, published in 2009,
sets out how we will meet these major opportunities
in passenger growth. Easier access areas
In 2008, we were involved in an initiative to develop
raised platform modules to give easier access to trains
…better journeys at Harrington in Cumbria. The raised platforms, known
This year, we have seen record levels of punctuality, as easier access areas, have also been installed at
passenger satisfaction and safety performance. St Albans Abbey, Aberdovey and Valley stations during
2009/10. There are proposals to install these platforms
Improved punctuality and less at other stations with low platforms when third party
delay minutes funding becomes available.
Punctuality continues to improve achieving new highs
against recorded history. The average punctuality over Better end to end journeys
the past year was 91.5 per cent. This is ahead of the The 2007 White Paper Delivering a Sustainable Railway
target set of 91 per cent by the end of 2009/10. suggested that pilot station travel plans (STPs) should be
developed.
Increasing passenger satisfaction A station travel plan is a ‘strategy for managing the travel
Independent surveys are carried out regularly with our generated by an organization, with the aim of reducing its
passengers to find out their levels of satisfaction with environmental impact typically involving support for
their rail service. The Passenger Focus national survey walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing.’
has showed improvement over the past four years with (Department for Transport)
the percentage of passengers satisfied with their journey
now at 83 per cent nationally. Leeds station was selected as part of a cross-industry
national STP pilot programme in 2008. We have worked
closely with Leeds City Council and consulted a wide
Improved passenger safety range of travel industry stakeholders in the development
In 2009, we saw a continuing improvement in passenger
of this station travel plan. Execution of the plan began in
safety. The safety risk to passengers associated with
August 2009 and includes the delivery of a range of
Network Rail activity fell by almost 15 per cent during
schemes aimed at improving station access, providing
2009/10. We continue to strive for further improvement,
onward sustainable journey information and placing
particularly to prevent fatalities on the railway. More
Leeds station at the centre of a sustainable city
information on safety can be found in our 2010 Annual
transport hub.
Report and Accounts.
Increasing accessibility on our network Promoting cycling
We continue to look for ways to make it easier for
We are managing a 10-year programme of station
passengers to get to and from our stations using
accessibility enhancements to give greater access to
environmentally friendly forms of transport.
many busy stations that only have step access, making it
difficult or impossible for passengers in wheelchairs, the In 2009, we completed a Memorandum of Understanding
elderly, those with heavy luggage and those with baby with Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity, in
buggies. The Government’s nationwide Railways for All relation to new cycle schemes on or connecting with
Strategy, launched in March 2006, is supported by Network Rail property.
16 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
As part of the Leeds STP, we are working in partnership Supporting railway heritage
with Northern Rail and West Yorkshire Passenger We support the Railway Heritage Trust which conserves
Transport Executive to provide a cyclepoint at Leeds and enhances buildings of special or historical interest.
station, modelled on the concept widely adopted in the Network Rail provided £2m in grant funding to the Trust
Netherlands. This will provide secure, supervised parking in 2009/10.
for over 250 cycles and a range of cycling-related
services, including sales, servicing, repairs and cycle hire. Our property specialists work with the Trust to find new
Construction, which started in January 2010, is due to be uses for railway property with no commercial future in
completed in June and is expected to open in July 2010. the industry. As well as supporting the restoration of
historic buildings for external commercial use, the
Trust has supported charities and not-for-profit groups
91.5% Building on the past
Managing and maintaining our heritage structures can
to lease redundant buildings and attract third-party
restoration funding.
Punctuality continues be very complex. The challenge we face in reconciling our
to improve achieving heritage with our future is well illustrated by our King’s Recent projects include converting redundant rooms
new highs by the end
of 2009/10.
Cross station redevelopment in central London. This at Ladybank station, in Fife, into an artist’s studio, and
project involved working with English Heritage within a refurbishing abandoned stations at Brading and Sandown
Grade One listed building and a busy transport on the Isle of Wight for community use.
interchange with 120,000 passengers per day.
The Trust has also recently supported restoration work at
As part of the project we have had to balance respect for Halifax station to help recreate the glory of this station,
heritage with environmentally friendly design to help us and given support for the superb new frontage to
meet the Mayor of London’s requirement that 10 per cent Liverpool Lime Street station. It has also supported further
of the refurbished station’s base energy demand must lighting of viaducts to emphasise these landmarks, most
be supplied by renewable energy sources. We chose recently at London Road, Brighton.
photovoltaic cells which use semi-conductor technology
We also work with the Railway Heritage Committee, the
to convert sunlight into electrical energy as the best
National Railway Museum and heritage railways around
renewable energy option for the aesthetics and structure
the country. Where there is no cost impact on Network
of this famous building. We believe we have integrated
Rail, we support the re-use of redundant assets, like closed
contemporary engineering with celebrated architecture at
signal boxes, on heritage railways.
this landmark station.
Sending the right signals
In 2008, Barnham signalling centre was opened On 6 December 2009, the five-tonne structure was lifted
featuring a state-of-the-art signalling system using by crane from the middle platform of Barnham station
modern computerised systems and processors to and made a three-hour journey across the town,
control signalling in the area. watched by TV cameras and Barnham residents, before
being lifted onto the pre-built foundations at its new
This renewal meant that the old Barnham signal box,
home. A grand opening is planned for the summer of
built in 1911, was no longer needed. The Save Barnham
2011, 100 years after the box was first commissioned.
Signal Box Campaign (SBSC) was set up by the local
community to preserve the historic box and convert it • The Barnham signal box was originally built in 1911
into a community centre. by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
(LBSCR)
We gave the SBSC group funding that was equivalent
to the cost of demolishing the box. Additional costs • It had 75 levers using pulleys, wheels and long lengths
to transport the signal box were raised by SBSC. In of steel wires to control points and signals.
November 2008, Barnham’s historic signal box was
formally closed in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 17
Our communities
With over five million lineside neighbours,
we have a commitment to the communities
who live and work alongside our network.
www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Community safety
We’re making our communities
safer by tackling the misuse of
level crossings and providing
£10m
positive alternatives to help In 2009/10 we held 111 level
reduce trespass and vandalism crossing safety awareness days
on our network. and committed £10m to our
national level crossing closure
6 programme.
We held six No Messin’! live
events in 2009/10 as part of
48.1%
our national youth campaign. In 2009/10 we delivered
No Messin’! offers young people community safety plans across
alternatives to playing on the 100 hotspot locations, which
railway and is supported by contributed to a 48.1 per cent
sports stars like boxer Amir Khan. reduction in reported incidents
of trespass, vandalism and
anti-social behaviour in
these areas.
Community relations
90%
At the end of 2009/10 we
reached our target of resolving
90 per cent of reported lineside
issues within 20 days.
Our National Helpline is available
24/7 to answer questions from
the public.
18 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Our communities
We are working with The Tree
Council to help communities
re-plant trees where large scale
vegetation removal has taken
place on our network.
Managing vegetation is necessary
to maintain a safe and reliable rail
network. We aim to be sensitive to
our local communities when we
carry out this critical work.
Community rail
Community Rail is a
Government led strategy
supported by Network Rail.
It aims to involve local people in
the development of local and
rural rail routes, services and
stations. It focuses local
commitment and effort on
socially necessary lines that have
often been lightly used – helping
to keep rail at the heart of
our communities.
Charitable giving 63
40%
There are 63 routes with a
Community Rail Partnership
in Britain.
Over 40 per cent of our workforce
participated in a vote to choose
our charity of choice, Cancer
Research UK (CRUK) in 2010.
£1m
We aim to raise £1m for CRUK
over the next two years.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 19
Our communities
We are very conscious of our position We are working with The Samaritans to:
within the community and are working • make sure The Samaritans helpline number is at
hard to benefit the people and key locations for this type of incident
environment around us. • train front line staff on how to identify potential
suicides and how to intervene appropriately
Community safety • provide an enhanced response service via local offices
Our dedicated community safety team seeks to improve of The Samaritans when a suicide has occurred
safety for all railway users and reduce crime on the railway.
The team works in communities nationwide, primarily • work with the media to encourage responsible
engaging in ‘hotspot’ areas which represent the greatest reporting of suicides to discourage copycat incidents.
risk to railway users and to the infrastructure. We try to The aim of this partnership is to reduce incidents of
uncover the reasons for railway crime by working with suicide on the railway by 20 per cent by 2015.
different organisations in the local community.
Our award winning No Messin’! campaign gives young Community relations
people the opportunity to try new activities – a better We are a first point of contact for people in our
way of spending their time than playing on the railway. communities who have a query about the railway. We run
48.1% In 2009/10 our approach to No Messin’! has focused
on supporting longer term community projects to form
a 24/7 National Helpline to help answer any questions.
Reduction in trespass In 2009/10 we set a target to resolve all enquiries from
bonds with the community and stop railway crime
and vandalism in our top the public relating to the following lineside issues within
100 hotspot locations over
before it starts.
20 days:
the last year.
We support restorative justice programmes and
• site clearance requests
community payback schemes, working with youth
offending teams and the Probation Service to target • removal of litter, graffiti, fly posting and fly tipping
our message to people who are at risk of, or are
• boundary wall and fencing issues
already offending.
• trees and general vegetation management
Level crossing safety • management of invasive plants such as Japanese
There are approximately 9,000 level crossings in the Knotweed, Hogweed and Ragwort.
UK, of which Network Rail manages 6,592 active, open
crossings. Level crossings pose the single biggest risk We reached this goal on lineside issues towards the end
of a catastrophic incident occurring on the railway. of 2009/10 and have now set ourselves an even tougher
target of resolving 90 per cent of all the enquiries that
We work to reduce incidents of misuse at level crossings come through to our National Helpline from members of
through our national awareness campaign ‘Don’t Run the public within 20 days by the end of 2010/11.
The Risk’ (hard-hitting adverts on prime-time national
television, radio and national and local press) and our
national level crossing closure programme.
Working in partnership to resolve issues
Most of the enquiries received by our 24/7 National
Locally, we work with the British Transport Police, local Helpline relate to vegetation, litter and graffiti. We
councils, local police forces and community groups to have focused on building local partnerships wherever
attend high profile level crossings and ask users ‘Would it possible to help resolve such problems more quickly,
Kill you to Wait?’. In 2009/10 we held 111 level crossing and use community response teams for small scale litter
safety events across Britain. removal, graffiti, fencing repairs and support on other
local initiatives.
In 2009/10, we committed £10m to our national level
crossing closure programme which is closing level
crossings that are operated by the user. These pose Managing vegetation
a higher risk than other crossings. So far, we have We continued our partnership with The Tree Council this
agreements in place to close 391 crossings. year, with a new community planting fund for 2010/11.
Building on their expert guidance, we have funded an
National suicide prevention programme initiative for people to re-plant trees away from the
railway in areas where large-scale vegetation removal
Sadly, suicides continue to occur on the rail network with
has taken place. This allows us to keep the railway safe,
over 200 reported incidents in the past year. In January
is environmentally friendly, and gives community groups
2010, we announced a groundbreaking five-year
the opportunity to enhance their local surroundings.
partnership with The Samaritans to develop a national
programme which aims to reduce the frequency of suicide
incidents on the railway, as well as supporting staff and
customers who experience an incident of suicide.
20 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Graffiti Supporting local and rural rail lines
We have developed a pioneering agreement to speed up Community Rail is a Government led strategy supported
the removal of graffiti and rubbish from around London’s by Network Rail. It aims to involve local people in the
stations and railway lines. The new Memorandum of development of local and rural rail routes, services and
Understanding with London Councils enables a quicker stations. It focuses local commitment and effort on
response to Londoners’ complaints about litter and socially necessary lines that have often been lightly used
graffiti on land around the rail network. – helping to keep rail at the heart of our communities.
Under the Memorandum, boroughs and Network Rail
have collectively agreed to: Community Rail Partnerships
There are 63 routes with a Community Rail Partnership.
• better coordinate cleaning schedules in areas around 27 of these have been designated by the Government
stations and railway lines as Community Rail lines or services. This allows a more
• seek long-term solutions to prevent the dumping of flexible approach to train operation particularly in the
rubbish and railway vandalism area of fares and timetabling. It may also enable
flexibility in terms of operation and maintenance for
• set time limits for removing graffiti or cleaning rubbish Network Rail, something we will be exploring over the
from sites when a complaint is received next few years.
• form wider partnerships to educate people about the In 2009/10 we contributed £25,000 to a joint grant
dangers and penalties of this antisocial behaviour. scheme with the Department for Transport. This scheme
provided a total of £85,000 for grants to designated
Community volunteers Community Rail Partnerships for innovative and
Since October 2008 we have set up 33 community measurable projects. For example, a grant was given to
volunteer schemes. These schemes enable volunteer create a DVD aimed at junior school children (Key Stage
groups to safely access and improve areas of disused land 2), introducing them to rail travel, their local railway, its
away from the operational railway. A further 14 schemes history and how to use it safely.
are awaiting approval, including the first in Scotland, and
The grant scheme generated matched third party funding
17 schemes are currently under consideration. There have
of £114,000, for example from local authorities and
also been 12 one-off clearances of overgrown land.
county councils.
There are now 400 volunteers carrying out work under
this initiative.
No Messin’!
Network Rail’s No Messin’! campaign uses local young “I’m from the same kind of background as a lot of
sports stars as ambassadors to discourage youngsters the young people that mess about on the tracks, so
from trespassing on dangerous railway lines. Boxer hopefully they can look at what I’m doing, see what can
Amir Khan and fast-rising badminton player Fontaine be achieved with a lot of effort and become inspired to
Chapman are just two of the British sports stars that do something similar,” says Fontaine. “It’s certainly
have signed up. better than risking their safety on the tracks, and
hopefully events like this will not only save lives, but
Both stars help out at the No Messin’! events and use
change lives too.”
various opportunities to talk to young people about
the dangers of messing about on railway tracks. Sports Our No Messin’! events are attended by a number of
stars are inspirational to young people, particularly No Messin’! scholars from different parts of the country.
those who come from similar backgrounds, and so These are inspirational young people who act as
are ideal role models and advocates. ambassadors for other young people, and include six
wrestlers, two boxers and a swimmer – all of whom are
Last year, we arranged for wrestlers from Tullibody
under the age of 16.
Wrestling Club and Bowmar No Messin’! Gym, a
Network Rail sponsored gym, to visit boxing star Amir
Khan. On arrival they spoke to members of ‘Team Khan’
and participated in a training session devised by the
gym staff. Amir and his nutritionist also held a question
and answer session with the young people.
Twenty-year-old Fontaine Chapman is one of Britain’s
Olympic hopefuls and has been supported for the last
few years by Network Rail. She does a lot of her training
in the sports facilities of our Westwood leadership
development centre in Coventry and the Company also
pays many of her tournament fees and travel expenses.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 21
Our communities
Bikes to banners – our charity work
Between 2008 and 2010, we raised over £450,000 for Marketing the NSPCC Helpline is a key priority for the
the NSPCC – money that can now be used to pay for charity. In September 2009, the King’s Cross station
at least 10 child protection experts who will answer redevelopment team identified a site at King’s Cross
calls and deliver support through the NSPCC for a station to display an NSPCC advertisement promoting
whole year. the helpline.
Pedal power In December 2009, the NSPCC advertising hoardings
In 2009, Network Rail provided £150,000 to sponsor the were installed alongside platform 9. The space was
NSPCC’s Big Bike Ride. The nationwide event saw people donated by Network Rail and each hoarding was
take to their bikes in either an NSPCC organised event in produced and installed by the King’s Cross project team.
Buckinghamshire or Sussex, or organise their own event
With over 40 million passengers a year passing through
in their local area. Many Network Rail employees took
King’s Cross station, the adverts had the potential to
part in a bike ride including Chief Executive Iain Coucher,
reach millions of people, passing on the NSPCC’s
who launched the first event in Buckinghamshire and
vital message.
was the first to cross the finishing line. All the money
raised by last year’s Big Bike Ride supported the London Bridge
NSPCC’s Child’s Voice Appeal to raise £50m for their In the run up to the start of construction work at London
vital helpline services. Bridge station, Network Rail took full advantage of
space on the main station concourse by allowing the
Making the best use of our assets
NSPCC to display a huge advertising banner.
The NSPCC Helpline is a telephone and online service for
adults who are concerned about the welfare of a child or The banner was nearly 20m long – the same length
young person. It provides adults with advice, guidance as a train carriage – and was donated by Network Rail.
and support, and can take action on their behalf if they
have concerns about a child who is either being abused
or is at risk of abuse.
We are proud of our fundraising
efforts at Network Rail and are
committed to raising more.
22 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Charitable giving work. We offer volunteer leave, matched giving and Give
We support charities directly and, through our charity As You Earn (GAYE).
schemes, we empower our people to support charities
and the communities in which they work. Volunteer leave
We offer all employees up to five days volunteer leave
Cancer Research UK – our new charity of choice
per year to take part in volunteering activities that align
The charity of choice is our most high profile charity
to our charitable giving objectives.
partnership. Chosen by our people, the partnership is
valued at around £250,000 per year. In March 2010, over In 2009/10, 144 people took volunteer leave, providing a
40 per cent of our workforce participated in a postal and total of 233 days to charitable organisations and trusts.
online vote and chose Cancer Research UK as our next We want to encourage more employees to take volunteer
charity of choice. In total, 16,389 votes were received and leave. By supporting 30 new regional charities we’ll be
each vote cast represented £1 donated to their chosen promoting more opportunities to volunteer and get
charity – so even if it didn’t win, each charity benefited. involved in local communities over the coming year.
Our target for 2010/12 is to raise £1m for Cancer
Research UK and increase awareness of the work Matched giving
they do. We’ll achieve this through fundraising, We support our people in fundraising for causes they
sponsorship, gifts in kind, health awareness events feel passionate about and each year we match our
and employee volunteering. employees’ fundraising totals (up to a Company-wide
total of £100,000 per year) and donate it to our charity
NSPCC partnership draws to a close of choice. Between 2009 and 2010, 196 employees took
Our two-year charity of choice partnership with the part in our matched giving scheme – an increase from
NSPCC ended in March 2010. We raised £450,000 for the previous year when 151 people participated.
the charity – money that can now be used to pay for at
least 10 child protection experts who will answer calls
and deliver support through the NSPCC Helpline for a Give As You Earn (GAYE)
whole year. In 2009/10, 885 people took part in our GAYE scheme,
giving a total of £244,274 of tax-free direct donations to
charity through their payroll. This year, with the help of
Getting our people involved the fundraising organisation Payroll Giving in Action, we’ll
By making our charitable giving schemes available to be increasing the promotion of the scheme with the aim
everyone at Network Rail we hope to empower our people to raise as much money as possible for charities that are
to support charities and the communities in which they important to our employees.
Charitable giving
Give As You Earn Matched giving
In January 2009, we promoted our Give As You Earn The total value of matched money has seen its first
scheme at our annual Business Briefings roadshow. increase in three years – up 19.1 per cent compared
By raising awareness of the scheme we have seen a to 2008/09. We continue to promote the scheme and
17.7 per cent increase in the amount of people taking have recently introduced an improved Matched Giving
part in the scheme in the last year. form to give employees a clearer understanding of
the process.
Network Rail Give As You Earn participants* Network Rail Matched Giving Scheme*
900 £200,000 198,149
885
850 £150,000
Value of matched money
Number of participants
142,092
104,589 100,000
800 £100,000
83,976
752
750 £50,000
V
700 £0
2008/09 2009/10 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10
*giving £244,274 to registered charities in 2009/10 *matched for 196 employees in 2009/10
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 23
Sustainable
supply chain
We want to make more sustainable
purchasing decisions throughout
our supply chain. We’re working in
partnership with our suppliers to
deliver more sustainable solutions.
www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Sustainable materials
We have targeted seven
key materials as a focus for
improving sustainability in the
£160m
Network Rail supply chain: Our annual spend on our seven
key materials.
• Ballast
• Track timber
•
•
Concrete sleepers
Steel rail
25%
• Transmission oil Our target is for 25 per cent of
• Fuel our spend on our seven key
• Paper materials to be demonstrably
sustainable by 2014.
24 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Sustainable
procurement
Sustainable procurement is an
integral part of our commitment
to minimising our environmental
impact.
We’re working with our partners
CIRIA and Action Sustainability
to integrate sustainability into
our supply chain.
Sustainable timber
We are working together with
our suppliers to source more
sustainable timber.
75,000
Wooden sleepers and bearers are
needed each year for vital track
maintenance.
95%
Our target is for at least
95 per cent of our track timber
to come from sustainable sources.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 25
Sustainable supply chain
Our supply chain has to adapt to the What we learn from focusing on these seven key materials
will inform how we integrate sustainability further across
challenges of sustainable sourcing. our supply chain.
To be truly sustainable we need to
balance the management of our social Action plans for sustainability
and environmental impacts with our To deliver our sustainable materials target we have
drive for efficiency in how we operate. developed working groups drawing on the expertise of the
people directly involved in specifying, procuring, ordering,
using and disposing of these materials. We are taking a
Sustainable procurement whole life-cycle approach, and considering not just the
We want to make more sustainable purchasing
carbon impact but also the waste, biodiversity, pollution
decisions throughout our business. We are focusing on
and natural resources impacts as well. During 2009/10,
the environmental supply chain impacts of seven of our
the majority of our working groups have developed
key materials as the first step towards this goal before
five-year action plans.
looking at wider opportunities for improvement over
the coming year. We have also developed plans with our partners,
the Construction Industry Research and Information
Our key materials Association (CIRIA) and Action Sustainability on
We have chosen seven key materials that both directly sustainable procurement across our supply chain.
impact on the sustainability of the railway and over To provide leadership in this area we have set up a
which we can have a genuinely positive influence. These sustainable procurement steering group, chaired by
are ballast, track timber (which includes sleepers, bearers our Director of Contracts and Procurement, to focus on
and longitudinal timbers), concrete sleepers, steel rail, driving our sustainable procurement programme forward.
transmission oil, fuel and paper.
We decided to target paper, not because it is a major Supply chain partners for
area of expenditure, but because it is something that is sustainable success
used in every corner of our organisation. We believe that We are working to build strong partnerships with our
by reducing our reliance on paper, and increasing our suppliers. In 2009/10, we introduced our supply chain
use of recycled paper, we are sending the right message charter, which is a commitment to create professional
about wider sustainability issues. and mutually beneficial relationships by being flexible,
Our annual spend on these materials is more than £160m innovative, transparent and decisive. We believe that by
and we have set ourselves the target of 25 per cent of our working in partnership we can find new, more sustainable
spend on them being demonstrably sustainable by 2014. solutions to meet our needs.
We are focusing on sustainable
sourcing across our supply chain.
26 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Sustainable timber
In 2009/10, we worked with one of our suppliers,
Trackwork Limited, to improve the sustainability of
the 75,000 wooden sleepers and bearers we need
each year for vital track maintenance. Our target is
to buy at least 95 per cent of our track timber from
sustainable sources, including Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) certified wood.
When we began, the quantity of FSC certified
hardwood available was small and did not generally
meet our technical specifications. Furthermore, the cost
of this wood (especially when purchased from Brazil)
had been artificially inflated by an over-complex supply This has involved re-working every element of the
chain featuring a succession of agents, all of whom process from remote rainforest logging sites to trackside
added to the cost. delivery. These radical improvements have been
achieved in spite of the difficulties of implementing
Trackwork Limited transformed the tropical hardwood
change and has achieved excellent process control in
supply chain to bring increasing quantities of high
remote locations in developing countries.
quality sustainably sourced sleepers and bearers to
the UK for us. On 22 February 2010, 1,200 cubic metres of Brazilian
hardwood sleepers and bearers – all of it FSC certified
– arrived in the UK for use on the railway. As a result
of our combined efforts over the past five years, FSC
supplies have been developed enough to supply a
whole consignment of 100 per cent FSC certified
FSC supplies have been developed tropical hardwood for the very first time in 2010.
enough to supply a whole
consignment of 100 per cent
FSC certified tropical hardwood
for the very first time in 2010.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 27
The environment
We’re working hard to reduce our impact
on the environment and to put rail at the
heart of a low carbon economy.
www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Water
We’re working hard to use
water more efficiently wherever
we can.
49m 3
In 2009/10 we used an
estimated 49m3 of water
per employee.
To better understand our water
usage, we are reviewing options
for metering supply points to
monitor how much water is
Usage used and by whom.
1/3
Our National Centre has been
designed to use 1/3 less water
than a standard building of
this type.
Our carbon footprint
4.6% 5,500
Over the last three years we’ve We intend to install approximately
reduced our carbon footprint by 5,500 smart electricity meters
4.6 per cent. across our business by 2012.
6
8
We use energy for transportation, 0
1
20%
8
in powering equipment and
providing working environments
for our employees, passengers Our target is to achieve a 20 per
and third parties. cent reduction in energy-related
CO2 emissions by 2014 compared
to 2006/07 levels.
28 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Biodiversity
and ecology
The railway is surrounded by
green space, often referred to
as ‘green corridors’.
£6.1m
We’re investing £6.1m in 21 of
our Sites of Special Scientific
Interest which are important to
the nation’s natural heritage, for
their habitats, plants, animals
and geology.
te
Concre
er
Pap fill
d Land
Woo
s
Rail industry carbon Glas
We’re working with our
industry partners to improve
energy efficiency and reduce
rail’s carbon emissions.
As a low carbon mode of
transport, rail plays an
increasingly important part in
minimising Britain’s carbon
footprint.
61g Managing waste
We manage millions of tonnes We have three main sources
Rail creates just 61g of CO2 per
of waste every year. of waste:
passenger kilometre compared
to the 140g of CO2 per passenger • waste from construction,
kilometre of a car. 1.48m demolition and maintenance
works
We handled approximately
• office waste
1.48m tonnes of construction
and maintenance waste in • waste from our managed
2009/10. stations, which includes
waste from trains whose
pot
De 90.3% service terminates at the
station.
We reused or recycled
90.3 per cent of this waste
in 2009/10.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 29
The environment
As one of the UK’s biggest landowners SSSIs in Wales and Scotland
We also own and manage SSSIs in Wales and Scotland.
we are very aware of our responsibility We are working with the Countryside Council for Wales
to protect the environment around us. and Scottish Natural Heritage to carry out assessments
of our SSSIs and we anticipate that more information on
Biodiversity these sites will be available from these bodies next year.
Greening our corridor
The green space surrounding the railway is often Waste
referred to as a green corridor because it is an area for Our activities mean we manage thousands of tonnes
wildlife to either live in or pass through. of waste which has both a financial and environmental
A sustainable lineside impact that we need to minimise.
The green corridor concept shapes our sustainable Minimising waste from the start
lineside project which aims to reduce the impact of We believe that the first step in waste reduction is to
things like slope instability, weather, and burrowing design it out from the start, and to procure the products
animals on the operational railway, whilst providing and materials with the lowest whole life-cycle impact.
habitat for a more diverse range of species to live This is the purpose of our sustainable supply chain work
alongside the railway. which is reported on pages 24-27 of this report.
We have identified solutions to trial on 10 sites with Our waste
features that present particular challenges for running We have three main sources of waste:
our rail network, such as embankments in high rainfall
areas that require frequent maintenance. We have also • from construction, demolition and maintenance works
looked at solutions that can address wider challenges, • from offices
for example, considering planting hedgerows on our
land boundaries to deter social crimes like fly-tipping • from our managed stations, which includes waste from
and trespass. trains whose services terminate at the station.
Planting on the 10 trial sites will begin in 2010/11 and will Construction and maintenance waste
be monitored over a five-year period. We will then update In 2009/10, our National Delivery Service (NDS) logistics
our biodiversity action plan across the whole of our function handled approximately 1.48m tonnes of
network to develop a more sustainable lineside. construction and maintenance waste such as concrete,
steel rail and used ballast.
Our Sites of Special Scientific Interest in England
In England we own and therefore manage 146 We achieved a re-use/recycling rate of 90.3 per cent on
designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). this waste in 2009/10 – slightly lower than the 93.2 per
These areas are protected by law, as they are important cent achieved last year due to NDS managing more
90.3% to the nation’s natural heritage for their habitats, plants, mixed inert wastes. These were taken to landfill where
they were mainly set aside for use as cover.
of our construction animals or geology.
and maintenance waste Our aim is to achieve 95 per cent reuse, recycling or
Our aim is to improve and maintain the status of our
was reused or recycled
SSSIs to ‘favourable’ (meeting the set conservation recovery of waste handled by NDS by 2014.
last year.
objectives) or ‘recovering’ (meaning that the necessary Construction waste handled by our contractors
management measures are in place and that a favourable Our key construction contractors reported producing
condition will be reached in time). Since 2003/04, we have 785,500 tonnes of waste last year of which approximately
increased the proportion of our SSSI land that is in 57 per cent was reused, recycled or recovered. We plan
favourable or recovering status from 49.2 per cent to to improve this by working with our key contractors over
79.9 per cent. the next few years and we aim to achieve a target of
Our SSSI target for England 80 per cent reuse, recycling or recovery of contractor-
In 2000, Natural England agreed a Public Service managed waste.
Agreement target to bring 95 per cent of SSSI land in Waste from buildings
England into a favourable or recovering condition by In relation to the waste from our buildings, including
December 2010. The delivery of this target is coordinated managed stations, corporate offices, signalling centres
by them, and 21 of our SSSIs are included in it. and maintenance depots, approximately 18.8 per cent
We have set up a £6.1m investment programme to move of the total volume of waste was re-used, recovered or
these 21 sites into a favourable or recovering status. recycled in 2009/10.
Natural England has reported that 82.1 per cent of these Our target is to achieve 60 per cent avoidance of
21 SSSIs are now in favourable or recovering status – a landfill for waste from corporate offices, stations and
great improvement on last year (2008/09: 52.2 per cent). maintenance depots by the end of March 2014.
30 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
For depots and stations, the issue is more complex. • for cleaning, toilet and canteen facilities at our
Our depots mainly collect litter and waste from flytipping. other locations.
We aim to discourage flytipping by improving fencing
Improving our measurement and monitoring
and observation checks and by providing the British
To better understand our water usage, we are reviewing
Transport Police with the evidence to prosecute offenders.
options for metering supply points to monitor how much
Our managed stations handle waste that is produced water is used, for which purpose and by whom. Through
by commercial enterprises, station users, and trains. this review, we aim to use less mains or potable water, and
Managing this waste can often be quite complex and develop the business case for investment in grey water
we are working with train operators and commercial collection and recycling.
enterprises at stations to encourage increased recycling
Reusing water from railway tunnels
of their waste. We want to improve beyond our current
We have set ourselves a target of reusing 85 per cent of
managed station recycling rate of 21.2 per cent.
the water we remove from two key railway tunnels, the
Severn and Mersey, by March 2014. These are the
Water two biggest tunnels on our network, where we are
With climate change and increasing costs impacting required to extract water for safety purposes. Currently
on water supply, we are working hard to use water more only 17.3 per cent of the water we recover is reused by
efficiently wherever we can. third parties so for 2010/11 we will review the feasibility
Our water use of our target and continue to seek ways to encourage
In 2009/10 we used an estimated 1,778,249 cubic metres the reuse of water that we dispose from these tunnels.
of water (2008/09: 1,796,241m3) which is around 49m3 Water efficiency at our National Centre
per employee. This figure is based on a mixture of actual Our aim with water is to be as efficient as possible, which
and estimated readings. also means choosing the right quality of water for each
We use water in a variety of applications, including for: purpose. At our new National Centre in Milton Keynes we
will use harvested rainwater to flush toilets rather than
• our managed stations, including use by third parties water from the mains. The building, due to open in 2012,
who provide facilities for passengers will have sustainability at its heart. The National Centre
• filling water tanks on trains and washing trains will be water efficient and has been designed to use a
third less water than a standard building of this type.
• applying herbicides, and washing leaves off the
railway line
Restoring Britain’s landscape
We own and manage many Sites of Special Scientific pasture land, heathland and forest, and is home to
Interest (SSSI) around Britain. numerous species of birds, reptiles and mammals. The
site is of international and national importance for both
The sites are designated as SSSIs by Natural England
biological and geological reasons.
as they are of national, and sometimes international
importance for ecological and geological reasons. The railway runs right through the New Forest. Our team
The sites include grassland, railway cuttings and in Eastleigh has worked closely with Natural England,
coastal areas. the Forestry Commission and the New Forest Verderers
to carry out over £400,000 of improvement work on this
Two sites that highlight the range and impact of
SSSI – a complex task alongside the operational railway.
our improvement work are Dawlish Cliffs and the
New Forest. This partnership working has helped to restore the
natural landscape and the site has now been designated
Dawlish Cliffs SSSI
by Natural England as recovering.
The railway runs right along the base of Dawlish Cliffs
near Plymouth, a site of national geological importance.
Over the years, the cliff faces have been invaded by
Hottentot fig, which has found a foothold where our
weed sprayers can’t easily reach. Our team in Plymouth
have worked hard to remove vegetation at the base of
the cliffs to allow them to spray and kill the invasive fig
and reveal more of the cliffs. This work has put the site
into Natural England’s ‘recovering’ status.
The New Forest SSSI
The New Forest is not simply a forest. It has a range
of habitat types, including large tracts of unenclosed
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 31
The environment
Carbon Improved measurement and monitoring
We use energy for transportation, to power equipment In 2010/11, we will begin installing smart electricity
and to provide working environments for our employees, meters to provide improved information to monitor and
passengers and third parties. Much of this energy comes manage consumption. We intend to install approximately
from burning fossil fuels, which emits carbon dioxide. 5,500 smart electricity meters across our business by 2012.
Energy efficiency and renewables We are also reviewing our electricity supply points
Our aim is to maximise the efficient use of energy as to determine what each is used for. We want to improve
well as using energy production with a lower carbon monitoring and measurement and further reduce
output, like solar, wind, water, and waste to reduce our consumption. This review will also help identify potential
carbon footprint. alternative energy sources and, other energy efficient,
low carbon technologies for us to consider.
Reducing carbon at our offices, managed stations
and maintenance depots
In 2009/10, in partnership with the Carbon Trust,
Rail industry carbon emissions
The energy used in running trains is the largest
we surveyed our 18 managed stations, six of our
carbon impact of rail transport. Our industry-wide
infrastructure maintenance depots, and our Westwood
focus on delivering more carbon efficient journeys
leadership development centre in Coventry. We have
is important from both an environmental and an
defined activities that will reduce the carbon output at
economic perspective.
these locations and are establishing business cases to
justify the decisions on investment. These measures will Rail growth and a low carbon economy
contribute to our target of a 20 per cent reduction in As a low carbon mode of transport, rail can play a key role
non-traction energy related CO2 emissions versus a in helping to minimise the environmental impact of travel.
2006/07 baseline by 2014. Rail creates just 61g of CO2 per passenger kilometre
compared to 140g of CO2 per passenger kilometre of
At stations, around 70 per cent of energy is used by third
a car (data based on DEFRA conversion factors).
parties of which around 90 per cent is sub-metered. This
means we can provide accurate consumption data to As the rail industry continues to grow, carbon will remain
most of our tenants which helps them focus on reducing a key issue. Every investment to expand our network,
usage. We continue to work with train operators and improve journey times and increase rail’s capacity has a
commercial enterprises at stations to encourage energy carbon footprint impact to manage. Energy efficiency is
efficient practices. therefore at the core of our efforts.
Our carbon footprint
Since 2006/07, we have reduced our carbon footprint Our carbon footprint contains:
by 4.6 per cent. This is due to the initial effects of our • Electricity Obtained from our most recent meter
behavioural change work and better data collection readings and estimates obtained from half hourly
with less reliance on estimated meter readings. It meters and non-half hourly meters.
does not contain data on the electricity used to power • Gas Obtained from our most recent meter readings
trains, which is reported in industry-wide publications. and estimates.
20% • Gas Oil Obtained from our national supplier, Chevron.
Our target for reduction Network Rail 2009/10 carbon footprint • Diesel, petrol and liquefied petroleum gas
in non-traction energy (excluding staff travel) (for road vehicles) Provided by our fuel purchase card
related CO2 emissions operator, Arval. Fuel for cars and vans purchased by
by 2014.
325,000
members of staff and claimed back on expenses
322,501 is excluded.
320,000
318,636
• Aviation Fuel (helicopter usage for lineside
317,202 patrolling) Based on flying hours multiplied by an
Tonnes of CO2 equivalent
315,000 average fuel burn per hour.
• Calor Gas (Propane) Obtained from our national
310,000
307,738 supplier, Calor.
305,000
300,000
295,000
290,000
2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10
32 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Traction energy measurements. The project has reviewed metering
For the rail industry, we talk about reducing carbon types and will recommend meters for each train type.
emissions from traction energy. Traction energy is Our expectation is that as an industry, metering electric
simply the energy used to power the trains that run trains, delivering training, and focusing on efficiency could
on the rail network. reduce consumption by around 20 per cent by 2014.
The rail network carries both diesel and electric trains. Electrification
Approximately 40 per cent of all railway miles in Britain Network electrification is at the core of the rail industry’s
are electrified. These electrified lines carry a little under plans to reduce traction carbon emissions.
half of all passenger train miles and around five per cent
Electric rail services emit less carbon than their diesel
of the freight train mileage.
counterparts and have additional benefits in terms of
We procure the electricity used by train operators, reduced local impacts on air quality and noise. The carbon
supplying it to them through our infrastructure. We intensity of electricity generation is set to fall over the
currently spend around £258m per year on traction coming decades, meaning that electric trains will be
electricity, a figure which may increase in the future as able to run with even lower carbon emissions in the
energy prices rise. We can cut both running costs and longer-term.
carbon emissions by reducing this energy consumption.
In 2009, the Government announced a £1.1bn
Network Rail’s role programme of electrification to help achieve these
Part of our role is to be as efficient as possible in the benefits. The rail industry is now looking at the next
transmission of the electricity we procure, minimising phase of electrification in its long-term plans.
any energy loss in supply.
We can also help to provide more accurate measurement
systems to allocate both the cost and the carbon impact
of each train journey to each operator. With this
information, operators can monitor and set targets to
reduce their electricity consumption, costs and emissions.
As part of an industry initiative we have set aside £8.75m
to fit meters to trains, which will provide accurate energy
Driving down carbon emissions
We have one of the largest road vehicle fleets in Eco-driver training
Britain. We’re working hard to save money and carbon Fifty drivers have successfully completed an eco-driving
emissions by investing in new technology, and more training course, provided by the Energy Savings Trust.
efficient servicing and driving techniques. As well as reducing carbon emissions, eco-driving helps
us to:
Greener vehicles
We have specified more environmentally friendly • reduce fuel costs
company cars, and approximately 22 per cent of our
• improve driving techniques which lowers
large goods vehicles now have efficient ‘Euro V’ engines.
maintenance costs
Tyre pressure sensors
• reduce accident rates and vehicle repairs.
All vehicles now have tyre pressure sensors with warning
lights. Maintaining the correct tyre pressure improves
both fuel efficiency and vehicle safety.
Zero tolerance on vehicle maintenance
All vehicles are serviced and maintained according to
the manufacturer’s guidelines so that they remain as
environmentally efficient as possible. Interim health
checks are done between services, and any vehicle that
is not up to date with its service is taken off the road.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 33
Report card – our progress
Over the last 12 months we’ve made We have charted our progress against each of the
targets we set in last year’s 2009 Corporate Responsibility
good progress against our corporate Report. We have evaluated our progress as green when
responsibility targets. You can see we have met our target, amber if we are on track to
more targets in our full online report meet our target, and red if we need to do more to
at www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible achieve our target.
You can see details of all of our new targets for 2010/11
in our 2010 online Corporate Responsibility Report.
Key to progress
We need to do more to achieve our target
Read more about our progress in 2009/10 at We are on track to achieve our target
www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible We have met our target
Our workplace
To encourage diversity in applications To invest £41m in training centres for
for all our roles. our people over the next five years.
We have met our target. We are on track to achieve our target.
Our progress Our progress
• We’ve appointed an Equality and Diversity Manager • We’ve invested in multi-million pound training and
• We’ve launched a comprehensive equality and diversity development centres nationwide
action plan • This includes our Walsall Training Centre, which opened
• We’ve set clear objectives to help us create a diverse and in March 2010
inclusive workplace. • Our facilities are designed to create an inspirational
and engaging learning environment
• This is part of a long-term strategy to build and operate
world class training facilities.
Our stations and passengers
To discuss cycle hire at our London stations with To help implement a Station Travel Plan
the Mayor and Transport for London in 2009. for Leeds Station.
We have met our target. We have met our target.
Our progress Our progress
• Our Chief Executive Iain Coucher met with the London • We have worked with Leeds City Council and consulted
Mayor, Boris Johnson, in February 2010 travel industry stakeholders in the development of this plan
• We are looking to increase cycling provision with new • Execution of the plan began in August 2009. The plan
racks and spaces at Liverpool Street, Euston and Waterloo includes the delivery of a range of schemes aimed at
• We support the Mayor of London’s ambition to make improving station access and onward sustainable journey
London a cycling city information provision
• We are working with TfL on the Mayor’s cycle hire scheme. • We are working in partnership with Northern Rail and
West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive to provide
a cyclepoint at Leeds Station. This will provide supervised
parking for over 250 cycles and a range of cycling-
related services.
34 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
Our communities
To create action plans to reduce trespass and To continue the No Messin’! youth campaign,
vandalism in our top 100 hotspot locations. website and live events.
We have met our target. We have met our target.
Our progress Our progress
• In 2009/10 we delivered community safety plans across our • We held six No Messin’! live events in 2009/10
top 100 hotspot locations nationally. These plans aim to • These events aim to offer alternatives to young people
reduce trespass, vandalism and antisocial behaviour to help reduce incidents of misuse on the railway
• Across the top 100 locations, incidents of trespass and • We have formed a number of partnerships with community
vandalism have reduced by 48.1 per cent in 2009/10 groups in our top priority locations
when compared to 2008/09.
• These groups aim to provide long-term, sustainable
reductions in railway crime and improvements in safety.
Sustainable supply chain
To develop a sustainable procurement strategy. To make 25 per cent of our key materials
spend sustainable by 2014.
We are on track to achieve our target. We are on track to achieve our target.
Our progress Our progress
• We are focusing on the environmental supply chain • Our target is that 25 per cent of our spend on our seven
impacts of seven key materials as the first step towards key materials is demonstrably sustainable by 2014
more sustainable procurement • We are developing a five-year action plan to help us achieve
• What we learn from focusing on our seven key materials our target
will inform how we integrate sustainability further across • We will begin reporting against this target in 2010/11
our supply chain to refine the scope and process for a wider strategy.
• In 2009/10 we began working with Action Sustainability,
our sustainable procurement implementation partner,
to refine the scope and process for a wider strategy.
The environment
To revise our environmental management To have no incidents that impact on
system (EMS) over the next two years. the environment.
We are on track to achieve our target. We are on track to achieve our target.
Our progress Our progress
• We have commissioned an independent review of our • Unfortunately we had two reportable significant
EMS to help identify where improvements can be made environmental incidents in 2009/10
• Work is ongoing to update our environmental standards, • These were reported to the Environment Agency/SEPA
processes and guidance notes in line with the recommended and were associated with our maintenance works
improvements. • Although this does not meet our target, it is below six,
which is our maximum target threshold for reportable
significant environmental incidents
• Our aspiration remains to have zero reportable significant
environmental incidents.
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 35
Bureau Veritas’ independent assurance statement
Bureau Veritas has been engaged to Opinion
provide external assurance to Network It is our opinion that Network Rail’s 2010 CR Report:
Rail’s stakeholders over the accuracy • provides a fair summary of Network Rail’s performance
and reliability of its 2010 Corporate and activities
Responsibility (CR) online Report. • contains factual information and performance metrics
and data that are accurate and reliable
Scope of assurance • demonstrates an understanding of the material issues
The scope of the assurance was to determine: important to its stakeholders and has a variety of
• how Network Rail identifies its and manages its processes in place to manage its CR impacts. However
material CR related risks and emerging issues these are not always identified or communicated in a
complete and systematic way – see recommendations.
• the accuracy of the CR information, statements and
performance metrics and data trends reported for the
Areas of good practice
period April 2009 to March 2010.
• Network Rail’s overarching national objective is to
For the online version of the report, the assured webpages deliver an affordable and sustainable rail service as
are indicated by the statement ‘This page has been part of an integrated transport system fit for the 21st
externally assured by Bureau Veritas’. century. Network Rail details how it aims to achieve this
through its business plan for Control Period 4,
Excluded from the scope of our work is:
(2009/14) and resulting measures in areas such as
• operating performance and safety data audited by safety, performance and capacity, progress against
the Office of Rail Regulation which are reported annually
• Company position statements including any expression • implementation of specific CR initiatives, such as
of opinion, belief, aspiration, or future intention traction energy, carbon management, sustainable
procurement and innovative green design initiatives
• activities outside the defined reporting period
on its major projects
• financial data taken from Network Rail’s Annual Report
• Network Rail has moved from a hard copy CR report
and Accounts.
to web based reporting. This has led to a refocus and
summary of key messages which should increase
Methodology accessibility compared to the previous detailed,
In order to form our conclusions we undertook the jargon heavy hard copy version
following activities:
• the Chief Executive’s Q&A addresses some of the
• interviews with 21 staff within Network Rail’s key challenges for Network Rail head-on such as
London offices trade unions.
• review of Network Rail’s CR governance and Network Rail’s approach to CR and associated reporting
strategy through review of outcomes of the Corporate could be further improved by addressing the priority
Responsibility Group (CRG) which is chaired by Network recommendations outlined below.
Rail’s Chief Executive
• review of Network Rail’s existing practices for Priority recommendations
identifying CR issues relevant to external stakeholders • Vision and policy development – Network Rail is in
(e.g. national helpline, customer and employee surveys the process of developing its long-term Sustainability
and work of community relations team) and materiality Railmap to support the implementation of the policy
review via external media developed in 2009. Network Rail should ensure that the
process for its development is inclusive (i.e. includes
• verification of performance data and factual
external stakeholders) and is mapped to existing
information and assertions through document review,
material issues, risks and business priorities. Specifically,
data sampling and interrogation of supporting
this should be incorporated into its Initial Strategic
databases and associated reporting systems.
Business Plan to be produced in 2011 in preparation
for the CP5 planning period (2014/19)
• Sustainability policy implementation – Network Rail
should clearly map out its plans for implementation of
its sustainability policy and delivery plan. This should
define roles and responsibilities, objectives and targets,
and monitoring and measuring processes. This
recommendation was also made last year
36 For more information, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/responsible
• Communication – Network Rail should gain feedback
on its online CR Report to determine whether the
CR information is being clearly and consistently
communicated in enough detail and in a balanced
way. Specifically, Network Rail should provide more
information on progress against its economic
sustainability objectives. These objectives are in areas
such as encouraging investment and influencing
government policy to improve affordability to facilitate
modal shift which are key to achieving its national
objective to improve its economic value to society.
Limitations
Our assurance work was planned and carried out to
provide reasonable, rather than absolute, assurance.
Statement by Bureau Veritas of
independence, impartiality and
competence
Bureau Veritas is an independent professional services
company that specialises in quality, environmental,
health, safety and social accountability with over
180 years history. Our assurance team has extensive
experience in conducting assurance over environmental,
social, ethical and health and safety information, systems
and processes.
London
June 2010
Network Rail Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 37
Network Rail
Kings Place
90 York Way
London N1 9AG
June 2010
Tel: 020 3356 9595
www.networkrail.co.uk
