Network Rail

Network Rail is a British non-profit organisation that owns the British railway system: the railway tracks themselves, signals, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and stations. It took over ownership by buying Railtrack plc, which was in "Railway Administration", for £500 million from Railtrack Group plc.

In January 2003, Network Rail announced that upon the expiry of one of its contracts with a maintenance firm, it would undertake the maintance of a stretch of rail out of London Paddington itself. While the company maintained that this was not a step towards renationalization of the entire network, some commentators disagreed.