Network Rail must improve punctuality over the next decade

Members of the public are among those who have been appointed as the 116 members of the not-for-profits company.

The meeting in Glasgow on Wednesday was their first major chance to hold the Railtrack successor to account.

Some of the members say they are not clear how they are supposed to ensure the company improves its record on train reliability and safety.

But Network Rail chairman, Ian McAllister, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme members can actually wield "considerable power".

"The members have a much wider remit, which is to hold the company to account," he said.

Unlike shareholders in plc organisations, members can elect to call meetings, each has one vote and their focus is not just on dividends, he claimed.

See the views of members of the public appointed to Network Rail In pictures

Network Rail was unlike any other company and was being governed in a totally new way, he added.

Former railwayman Mohammed Sahid, a sub poster master who is a member of the public on the board, said: "We are not really sure exactly what we are supposed to be doing.

"If we suggest any ways and means of doing things are they going to implement it?"

And another mother of two commuters, whose family use the railway for days out, said: "I do not think anyone knows what the public members ought to be doing."

But she said she hoped the company would listen and take on board their comments.

One member - Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT rail union - suggested the Network Rail directors should give back payments they recently received in relation to Railtrack going into administration in October 2001.

He said: "We're facing the threat of one in 10 services facing the axe - that's not efficiency, that's madness.

'Brave and innovative'

"The railways need sustained public investment - but it's no good if the private sector are just going to suck it straight out again in profits."

Another member, business economics lecturer Rob Branston, called on his colleagues to vote against the reappointment of the company's auditors Deloitte & Touche.

Mr Branston said he had nothing against the present auditors but felt that members should make an early "show of teeth" to indicate to management that members meant business.

But the Association of Community-Rail Partnerships offered support for the directors.

Network Rail should be leading by example. Their executives could start by handing back the �1.8m in bonuses they've just been handed Bob Crow, RMT leader and Network Rail member Network Rail must save �13bn

"Network Rail is a brave and innovative project which could have many lessons to offer for the ownership and management of other public utilities," said Acorp general manager Dr Paul Salveson.

Rail Regulator Tom Winsor has expressed alarm at Network Rail's spending and is due to announce shortly new rules on how much the company can charge train companies for using the network.

Last week the Rail Passengers Council said Network Rail still had "a long way to go" in its efforts to improve the network.

And last month Network Rail threatened to cut 2,000 of its 14,000 staff in attempts to save �13bn over the next 10 years.

The company also said it could take until the end of the decade to bring train punctuality back to pre-Hatfield crash levels.