NETWORK RAIL PUBLISHES FORMAL RESPONSE TO ORR DRAFT DETERMINATION

Monday 8 Sep 2008

NETWORK RAIL PUBLISHES FORMAL RESPONSE TO ORR DRAFT DETERMINATION

Region & Route:: National

Last week, Network Rail issued its formal response to the Office of Rail Regulation's (ORR) draft determination.

The 400 page document details Network Rail's latest analysis and evidence in support of its views on the ORR's draft proposals for the company's funding requirements for the next control period (2009-2014).

In summary the document details:

That Network Rail agrees that some £800m can be shaved from the original £31bn expenditure projection made by the company earlier in the year
That there is a further £1bn of funding at issue for expansion projects that are needed for the long term and we may need to seek alternative sources of funding for some of these projects
That the remaining £1bn shortfall, mainly attributed to very aggressive efficiency targets, is currently unrealistic . It is not the quantum of the targets but the proposed speed at which they are expected to be delivered

Paul Plummer, Director Planning and Regulation, said: "We have made good progress in discussing some aspects of our plans with ORR and we believe we have provided strong evidence that further changes are required to enable us to build a bigger better railway over the next five years.

"There are still issues we need to resolve, but we are hopeful that we can find a satisfactory conclusion. This will enable us to move forward and deliver the further performance improvements and investment schemes our railway desperately needs to meet the challenge of continued passenger and freight growth."

Notes to editors

- Network Rail’s funding is reviewed every five years (a control period).This iterative, two year, process is now drawing to a close with the ORR publishing its final conclusions at the end of October - Network Rail gave its formal response document to the ORR on Thursday 4th September. It was published today on Network Rail's website and was made available to its industry stakeholders

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

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