Network Rail has promoted Jerry England to the role of group asset management director. He was formerly the group director of signalling and power asset management. As well as working for Network Rail, chartered engineer Mr England has worked for the Highways Agency and Thames Water and will be focusing on developing more customer driven and efficient management of the company’s asset base.

Services provided by the asset management team are provided to customers including Network Rail’s devolved routes, as well as operations and infrastructure projects.

Mr England said: “I’m looking forward to taking on this challenge and managing one of the most extensive and historic asset bases in the world. We have shown our ability to deliver projects to improve the nation’s rail infrastructure over the past few years and it promises to be even busier in the coming decade.

“By remaining customer focused and efficient in everything we do, we can keep Network Rail at the forefront of Britain’s infrastructure.”

Mr England will take on the role with immediate effect, reporting to Network Rail’s chief executive David Higgins.

Mr Higgins said: “Jerry England’s experience within Network Rail as director of engineering, and latterly signal and power asset management, stands him in good stead for taking charge of our infrastructure. His appointment is well-deserved, and one of his first steps will be to build on the post-devolution team to deliver a leadership structure closely aligned with customer-focused service.”

Jerry England’s roles at Network Rail: 2007-2009 director of civil engineering. 2009 director of engineering, 2009-2012 director, signalling and power asset management.

Network Rail owns around 20,000 miles of track; 40,000 bridges and tunnels; 1,000 signal boxes; 6,500 level crossings; 2,500 stations that are leased to train operators; 17 large stations that are managed and operated directly by the company, and a further 8,200 commercial properties all of which fund the rail network infrastructure.

In the decade since the company was formed, passenger journeys have increased by 40 per cent. Between 2004 and 2009 Network Rail delivered efficiency savings of 27 per cent, and it is on course to deliver a further 23 per cent such savings by 2014.

Part of those savings has been achieved through the creation of an internal market, with devolved routes able to demand improvements in customer service from Network Rail’s own in-house teams.