RailIbica
| Government owned corporation | |
| Industry | Rail infrastructure and asset management |
| Predecessor | Various private companies |
| Founded | October 2017 |
| Headquarters | 1 Eversholt Street Willmington |
| Products | Public transport |
| Owner | Ibican Department of Transportation |
Number of employees | 40,268 (2019) |
RailIbica is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Ibica. RailIbica is an government owned company of the Ibican Department of Transportation with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways.
RailIbica's main customers are the private train operating companies (TOCs), responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating companies (FOCs), who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. The DOT now also operates a government supported train operating company itself, Ibican Rail, competting with the private companies.
Responsibilities
RailIbica owns the infrastructure, including the railway tracks, signals, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and most stations, but not the passenger or commercial freight rolling stock. It however owns a fleet of departmental stock.
Although it owns over 500 railway stations, it manages only 20 of the biggest and busiest of them, all the other stations being managed by one or other of the various train operating companies (TOCs).
The majority of RailIbica lines also carry freight traffic; some lines are freight only. A few lines that carry passenger traffic are not part of the National Rail network (for example Angola Brightline, and commuter lines around Willmington and Rhone).
Funding
Network Rail is a Nonprofit_organization. The majority of funding comes from a mix of direct grants and borrowing from the federal and state governments, payments from train and freight operators and a small amount of income from commercial property estate.
In 2019 funding from the government amounted to $4.1 billion with train operating companies, paying access charges to use the rail network, $2.1 billion and freight $58 million. In 2019, it spent $3.1 billion on renewals (renewing existing infrastructure back to how it was when new) and $3.2 billion on enhancements, with the rest spent on maintenance and other costs.
Governance structure and accountability
Formal governance structure
The company is accountable to a body of members through its corporate constitution, to its commercial train operator customers through its contracts with them (the contracts are subject to regulatory oversight), and to the public interest through the statutory powers of the Federal Railway Administration.
Setting the strategic direction and the day-to-day management of Rail Ibica is the responsibility of the company’s board of directors. That direction must be consistent with the regulatory jurisdiction of the FRA, and with the requirements of its contracts. The FRA in turn operates within the overall transport policy set by the Ibican Department of Transportation, including as to what the government wants the railway industry to achieve and how much money the government is prepared to put into the industry. This means that the degree of government influence and control over the company is higher than it was before these enlargements of the powers and role of the government were introduced in 2017
Monitoring Network Rail's performance
The Federal Railway Administration (FRA) monitors Rail Ibica's performance on a continuous basis against targets established by the regulatory authority in the most recent access charges review, against obligations in the company's network licence and against forecasts in its own business plan. If performance is poor, the company will face criticism and possible enforcement action from its commercial customers (under their contracts) and from the FRA (enforcing the company's network licence). It may also be criticized by its members in general meeting.