OREANDA-NEWS. Mark Carne, Network Rail's new chief executive will take up his new role from Monday 24th February, slightly earlier than originally planned.

Mr Carne joined the company on 6th January and has been spending time visiting Britain's railway, meeting staff, partners and funders, customers and experiencing projects. He is also seen at first hand the impact on the network and to passengers of the recent extraordinary weather including several trips to Dawlish

Richard Parry-Jones, chairman, said: "With so much going on at the moment and the atrocious weather affecting our customers and testing the resilience of both our people and the network, Mark, David (Higgins) and I have discussed the matter and thought it best Mark get his feet under the table sooner rather than later.

“We have clear priorities; safely restoring services to normal, making our network more resilient and wisely spending and investing our ?38bn funding package to make Britain's railways better. We need to get going on this next chapter of our journey.”