Network Rail has set up a specialist business, Network Rail Property, to help generate £1.8bn through asset disposals.
The company’s board will approve investments and make decisions about sales across its estate, which includes 16m sq ft of commercial space.
Network Rail hopes the move will speed up land disposals and profits invested into its railway upgrade plan.
The company was launched on 1 April 2016 and is led by managing director David Biggs.
The new board will be chaired by Chris Gibb, a non-executive director of Network Rail since 2013, who has worked in the rail industry for more than 35 years.
A search has begun to identify two more non-executive directors with experience in the commercial and residential property markets and in leading complex property disposals and acquisition transactions.
Biggs said: “Our new property company will have greater powers to unlock land for homes, drive economic growth in towns and cities and reinvest money into the rail network to help fund the railway upgrade plan.”
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