NETWORK RAIL RESPONDS TO ORR's FINAL DETERMINATION

Thursday 30 Oct 2008

NETWORK RAIL RESPONDS TO ORR's FINAL DETERMINATION

Region & Route:: National

Network Rail today responded to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) final conclusions on the funding of the railway for the five year period, 2009 - 2014 (Control Period 4 - CP4).

Paul Plummer, director planning and regulation, said: “Continued high levels of investment in our railway network are to be welcomed but we must be sure that these clearly challenging targets and levels of investment set out today by the ORR are both achievable and adequate to meet the growing demands being placed on our railway.

"We will now take away today's determination and carefully study and consider the implications it will have on both passengers and freight users and on the industry as a whole. We must satisfy ourselves that what is proposed can be delivered and that it will be enough to solve the issues of capacity and deliver the much needed investment we need to build a bigger, better railway."

Notes to editors

Network Rail will now need a number of weeks to review and analyse today's determination before the Board make a decision on the next steps The process to complete the funding review - CP4 - still has some way to go: • November / December 2008: ORR completes charges review (determining where the money will come from to fund the determination (track access, grant, debt, other income) • February 2009 Network Rail deadline for accepting or rejecting the determination • 1 April 2009 CP4 starts

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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.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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