Railtrack is reducing its 70-strong corporate affairs team by ten as
part of an ongoing bid to streamline itself for life in the private
sector.
The job cuts are spread throughout Railtrack’s corporate affairs
function, which includes media relations, government affairs, investor
relations, community relations, internal communications and advertising.
As part of the restructuring, the London media relations operations,
which have just been centralised into one HQ from three previous capital
locations, will be assuming responsibility, previously held by its five
regional offices, for East Anglia and other parts of the south and
Midlands.
London media relations also takes over responsibility for specific areas
- such as the modernisation of the west coast main line - which were
previously handled by project teams.
Philip Dewhurst, Railtrack’s corporate affairs director, said he hoped
the job losses would not lead to any redundancies. Dewhurst said several
people who had left had not been replaced over the last few months, and
that attempts were being made to relocate other affected staff,
internally.
He said the changes were a result of Railtrack’s recent privatisation.
‘Previously, we had more people working in the total public affairs
function that were required by a plc. On becoming a top 100 company, we
had to restructure everything, and, inevitably, some jobs were likely to
disappear.’
