NETWORK Rail is to base its new regional York headquarters at Jarvis House, company bosses have announced.

The rail maintenance giant has confirmed that it will centralise its city operations at Jarvis Rail's former headquarters.

Network Rail shelled out £3.5 million for the leasehold over the Toft Green building late last year when troubled Jarvis announced it was to sell off much of its York portfolio in a bid to generate funds.

As many as 1,000 staff will now make it their home, with the company leaving its bases at Alliance House, in Holgate, Hudson House, in Toft Green, and several other scattered properties across the city.

A Network Rail spokeswoman said it was anticipated that the majority of staff would be in place at Jarvis House, which will be renamed, in the summer.

He said: "The majority of our staff will be moving to Jarvis House. The benefits of this are that it is cost effective, it is more efficient and it is better to have lots of our people all located in one building," she said.

"We have got people in five or six officers around York and, in the past, we have looked carefully at where employees can best be placed under one location.

"Hudson House is the base for other companies as well, so the aim is for locating as many people as possible under one roof."

The lack of suitable property in the city had seen Network Rail employees scattered once the company moved away from the traditional, but antiquated for its needs, Station Rise building.

Jarvis sold the building after announcing it had been "seeking to rationalise" its property portfolio as part of a restructuring deal aimed at saving the company.

Then, a Jarvis spokesman said the company had decided Jarvis House was too big for its needs. Jarvis, which has its rail headquarters in York, has since moved into the newly-built Meridian building in Blossom Street. The sale was ratified by Jarvis shareholders late last year.

Updated: 10:58 Friday, January 21, 2005