FEATURE: RICHARD PRICE
SCRUTINISING THE 2014-2019 PLAN FOR BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS
A Words:
Richard Price CEO, ORR
t the beginning of 2013, Network Rail published its Strategic Business Plan (SBP) for Britain’s railways
over the five years from 2014 to 2019. It put the cost of running and expanding our railways at around £37.5billion, with the costs shared between taxpayers, passengers and businesses. To put that into context, that’s the cost of around five London 2012 Olympics. This is a huge amount of money, and it is absolutely essential that the plan is rigorously scrutinised so that trains run safely and on time for customers, enabling the railways to deliver value for Britain’s economy and society. This is where the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) steps in.
Building on successes and managing growth Britain’s railway is vital to a modern, competitive economy and quality of life – connecting communities, getting people to work, transporting goods across the country and helping to improve our environment. In recent years, Network Rail, working closely with the rest of the rail industry, supported by successive governments and pushed by the regulator, has helped to deliver significant improvements in Britain’s railway. Britain now has one of the safest railways in Europe. One million more trains run every year than ten years ago. The punctuality of passenger services has improved, with around nine in ten trains running on time today. Overall passenger satisfaction has reached record levels. These improvements have seen demand for rail boom; last year 1.5billion passengers used the railways, which is an 8% increase on the previous year.
26 RailCONNECT
Network Rail’s plan seeks to build on these successes and manage the growth of Britain’s railways, with proposals to boost the capacity on the network and improve the resilience and reliability of the railways.
ORR’s role ORR’s job is to ensure that the plan is in the best interests of customers and taxpayers, delivering real value for money, and making best use of funds at a time when there is little money to go around. We are currently scrutinising the plan on behalf of customers and taxpayers to ensure it is affordable, that every penny is made to count and everyone involved in delivering the plan works together in achieving the highest levels of safety and performance. Our analysis is focusing on some key areas:
On efficiency – the company has proposed to achieve efficiencies of around 18% by 2019. ORR’s economists, financial experts and engineering analysts will be probing this target, using the latest data and benchmarking against the most efficient operators in the world, to ensure the company’s target is both achievable and ambitious.
On safety – ORR will never allow savings to come at the expense of safety and we have overseen Network Rail’s successful delivery of £15billion efficiency savings since 2004-2005, alongside improvements in safety. As part of our assessment, we want to see a focus on safety integrated into every activity within the organisation.
On performance – passengers generally enjoy good punctuality on the railways. However, there
are still too many occasions when passengers suffer poor performance, far below the high standards they have come to expect in recent years. We will be closely reviewing plans to ensure that the company is doing all it can to optimise performance on the line, taking account of the way it plans its maintenance and renewal of the network. ORR is keen to see efficiencies maximised as far as practicable, without compromising service quality. We want to see Network Rail raising its game – as one of the nation’s largest infrastructure managers – on the way it manages the condition of its assets such as bridges and tracks. This lies at the heart of delivering great performance and efficiency.
On projects – Network Rail has proposed a number of exciting rail projects to be completed between 2014-2019; such as completing the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station, reconnecting the border towns of Scotland with Edinburgh by reopening 31 miles of track, and electrifying the Cardiff Valley lines. We need to be sure that they provide real improvement for customers, represent value for money and will be delivered efficiently.
On affordability – ORR wants Britain’s railways to improve and expand, but it must do so in a way which is sustainable. Our financial analysis will focus on ensuring that the 2014-19 plan is affordable and particularly assessing whether factors such as its huge cost could become a long-term risk or burden.
WWW.THECONNECTSERIES.CO.UK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84