Financial news


ORR targets £2bn savings for Network Rail by 2019 B


RITAIN’s Office of Rail Regulation (ORR)


published its 2013 Periodic Review of Network Rail (NR) on June 12, which sets out how it expects NR to reduce costs by £2bn between 2014 and 2019, known as Control Period 5 (CP5).


The ORR’s assessment of NR’s Strategic Business Plan (SBP) suggests that total operating costs during CP5 should be no more than


£21.4bn, £1.9bn below the figure proposed by NR and £2bn less than the allocation for CP4 (2009-2014). This means that if the target is met and a forecast 14% rise in passenger traffic materialises, infrastructure costs per passenger-km will fall by 28% by the end of the decade. The ORR says savings will be achieved through the implementation of new technologies and more efficient


ways of working, and better management. NR said in its SBP that it expects infrastructure operating costs to fall to £2.03bn in CP5, £212m less than in CP4, primarily due to the deployment of new technologies, although the ORR believes this figure can be further reduced to less than £2bn.


The ORR’s recommended budget for maintenance expenditure is £4.65bn, broadly


National Express orders Bombardier emus for Germany


in line with the £4.67bn proposed in the SBP, which itself represents a reduction of £884m compared with CP4. With the increasing availability of high-quality data, the ORR believes NR will be able to move from reactive maintenance to a more preventative asset management regime, which it says will reduce the impact of infrastructure-related failures on performance.


Kapsch wins Saudi GSM-R contract


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AUDI Railways Organisation (SRO) and Indra, Spain, have chosen Kapsch CarrierCom to install GSM-R on the 450km under construction Haramain high- speed line between Mecca, Jeddah, and Medina. Kapsch will also support Indra and the Al-Shoula Spanish-Saudi consortium under its 12-year operating and maintenance contract for the line.


GSM-R will form part of the 320km/h line’s ERTMS Level 2 system. Network coverage will be fourfold so that if three base stations fail, a fourth can still serve a designated area. The core of the system, based on the latest R4 technology, will be operated at two locations and will be designed to provide full redundancy.


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ATIONAL Express has placed its first rolling


stock order for its German regional rail operations by awarding Bombardier a ƒ170m contract for 35 Talent 2 emus. The 160km/h trains will be operated on RE7 Rhine- Münsterland Express (Rheine - Münster - Wuppertal - Cologne


ESPITE another difficult year for Italy’s economy, Italian State Railways (FS) improved its financial performance for the fifth consecutive year in 2012, with Ebitda rising 7.6% to exceed ƒ1.9bn for the first time and net profits increasing 33.7% to ƒ381m. According to FS results,


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- Krefeld) and RB48 (Wuppertal - Solingen - Cologne - Bonn) services, from December 2015 under a 15-year concession awarded in February this year. National Express will


purchase the train fleet and sell it back to Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association (VRR) and Westphalia-Lippe Local


which since 2010 have been prepared in line with international accounting standards, Ebit grew 8.3%, or ƒ55m, to reach ƒ719m in 2012, while operating costs declined 2%, or ƒ172m. Trenitalia saw net profits rise


Transport (NWL), which will take over the financing of the trains and lease them back to National Express. In May National Express issued a separate invitation to tender for a framework contract to supply up to 250 electric trains for use on regional services in Germany.


FS reports improved results for fifth year in a row D


from ƒ156m in 2011 to ƒ206.5m last year, with Ebitda increasing from 24.4% to


24.6%. Overall revenues fell by 3% to ƒ5.13bn, largely as a result of a fall in demand due to the tough economic climate. Infrastructure manager Italian Railway Network (RFI) achieved a 9.2% increase in revenues, which rose ƒ188m to ƒ2.24bn, boosted by a ƒ59m increase in income from track access charges.


TMH and Tognum agree Russian JV


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RANSMASHHOLDING (TMH) has signed a joint-


venture agreement with Tognum to manufacture rail vehicle diesel engines at a new plant in Kolomna in Moscow Oblast.


The partners will invest


around ƒ80m in the project and planning for the new plant is due to be completed by November with the aim of starting production by December 2015. The facility will assemble, test, and finish MTU Series 4000 engines and gensets.


The joint venture will also establish a joint engineering centre for diesel engine development in Kolomna.


IRJ July 2013


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