UPDATED 14.14
THE Department for Transport has denied reports that Network Rail could be returned to the private sector.
The main cause for concern is said to be NR's debts, which are set to reach £40 billion by 2019 and are now on the public books after NR was reclassified as a government body in the public sector last September.
Various possibilities are said to be on the table, including dividing NR into regions as well as the more extreme option of involving the private sector once again.
NR's predecessor Railtrack was a plc, listed on the stock exchange, but was put into Railway Administration in October 2001 and replaced by not-for-profit Network Rail a year later.
The DfT said: "The government has no plans to break up Network Rail."
Meanwhile, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “It is no surprise to us that the run up to the election has been chosen as the vehicle to flag up the break up and privatisation of Network Rail – a move that would drag us right back to the lethal and chaotic days of Railtrack which led us to a wave of disasters including Hatfield, Potters Bar and Ladbroke Grove.
“RMT has warned repeatedly that demands for cuts at Network Rail, alongside the fragmentation of maintenance and renewals and the proliferation of contractors, were being used as a way of undermining the organisation to set it up for privatisation – a scenario which hasn’t been helped by some shocking mismanagement like the shambles at London Bridge.
“However, the current problems support the case for public ownership of the entire railway, not a further drive to fragmentation, profiteering and privatisation that would raise the horrific spectre of RAILTRACK2. RMT will fight these moves.”