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Friday 23 Dec 2005

NETWORK RAIL PUBLISHES CONSULTATION ON CAPACITY STUDY FOR EAST COAST MAIN LINE

Region & Route:

National

Network Rail today publishes, for consultation, the results of its study into capacity on the East Coast Main Line, which it has prepared for the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). The study was requested by the ORR following a number of applications from GNER and Grand Central Railway to run additional services on the line. The ORR asked Network Rail to assess whether the line has sufficient capacity to meet these requirements. Among the conclusions of this detailed study are:

• The East Coast Main Line is already one of the busiest lines on the railway network and enhancements to the infrastructure will be required to provide additional services
• There is currently insufficient capacity on parts of the line to satisfy all the stated requirements of both GNER and Grand Central Railway
• In order to introduce the proposed services, it would be necessary to alter the access rights of other operators, such as freight traffic and other passenger operators
• The level of demand on the line means that there is no capacity for further freight paths beyond the 2005 levels

  A spokesman for Network Rail said: “The East Coast Main Line is one of the busiest rail routes in Europe. Our detailed analysis concludes that, without further infrastructure enhancements, it will be very difficult to deliver the additional services proposed by both GNER and Grand Central Railway.” Following the publication of this consultation the next steps will be:

• Interested parties are invited to submit comments on this consultation to Network Rail by 10 January 2006
• Network Rail will take these comments into account before publishing a final version of the study
• Once the final version is published, the ORR will determine the allocation of train paths between the various operators
• Network Rail will assess the feasibility of the various options to increase capacity by enhancing the infrastructure. These conclusions of this assessment will be published later in 2006