LONDON (Reuters) - Network Rail faced strong criticism for its handling of an over-budget programme to upgrade the country's tracks in a report by MPs which could intensify questions about the future of the state-backed rail infrastructure operator.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said that it found there were "severe planning and budgeting failures" in Network Rail's investment plans and also questioned whether the country's rail regulator was fit for purpose.
Network Rail has been under scrutiny since June when it said it would delay or cut back on modernisation work because rising costs and missed targets made a 38.5 billion pound plan to overhaul and electrify Britain's sprawling Victorian rail system untenable.
Earlier in November, a government-commissioned report into Network Rail said one option for the operator would be either full or partial privatisation, in the same way as the British government sold off the Royal Mail postal service (L:RMG).
Parliament's PAC called for a review into the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, and said that Network Rail itself must become more accountable.
"Network Rail has lost its grip on managing large infrastructure projects," PAC chairwoman Meg Hillier, from the opposition Labour party, said in a statement.
"The result is a twofold blow to taxpayers: delays in the delivery of promised improvements, and a vastly bigger bill for delivering them."
Network Rail said it was clear that the rail industry had been overly ambitious about what could be accomplished with the funds and resources available.
"Network Rail has successfully delivered over 5,000 projects over the past five years, but our understanding of how best to plan and deliver major new electrification schemes was not good enough," a spokesman said.
"We have now made significant changes to the way we plan and deliver our investment programme, which will see schemes progress only once they are sufficiently developed that a reliable cost estimate can be established."