Government review of electrification programme is not a scaling back but an opportunity to rethink the delivery of “an enormously challenging programme”, says Carne.

The recent government imposed "pause" on Network Rail's major programme of network enhancements is not a scaling back in ambition for the rail network but simply an opportunity to find the best way to deliver  “an enormously challenging programme”, according to Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne.

“It is not a scaling back – as the Secretary of State said we still have £38bn to spend under this control period,” said Carne, speaking at the Tomorrow’s Rail conference this week.

“At this moment it is really important that we level with people about just how difficult this is,” he explained. 'It is an enormously challenging programme and I think we should level with people, set out a programme and then deliver it.”

“I believe that you should do a lot more of the up-front engineering work before you commit to a cost and a schedule because experience shows that when you do that work you finds that it is more difficult than you originally thought,” Mark Carne.

Carne said that the fact many of the project were turning out to be more expensive and difficult to deliver that anticipated demonstrate the need to do more detailed engineering work in the planning stages of projects.

“I believe that you should do a lot more of the up-front engineering work before you commit to a cost and a schedule because experience shows that when you do that work you finds that it is more difficult than you originally thought,” he said.

“But what we know is that some of those projects have cost more than we thought so we need to rephase some of those programmes,” he added. “That is what the review will do over the next few months - say what is the right way in which to deliver these programmes over time.”

Carne accepted that the organisation had lost many of its senior team but pointed out that it had also “brought in some fantastic people”.

However he did highlight concerns over loss of skills lower down the organisation, particularly due to staff choosing careers overseas.

“Across the company as a whole yes we are losing people,” he said. “Some 900 ex-Network Rail engineers are now working overseas for different companies. I want to make Network Rail a place that they want to stay for their whole career. 

“If we want to increase the capacity reliability and speed of our national network we need to embrace the digital railway now. As an industry we need to be bolder and braver about that"

“That is why I am very excited about Network Rail consulting our international consultancy and very pleased that we won the California high speed contract.”

Carne said he was “hugely excited” about former London Transport Commissioner Sir Peter Hendy joining Network Rail as chairman.

“He understand customers and has had the experience of running a very intense transport system,” he added. “His relentless focus on performance every day is exactly what we are trying to do at the moment.”

Carne also described introduction of digital technology on the railways a as “national strategic priority.

“If we want to increase the capacity reliability and speed of our national network we need to embrace the digital railway now. As an industry we need to be bolder and braver about that because it is the only way we will meet the enormous customer demand in the future.”