Media centre

Thursday 2 Mar 2006

NETWORK RAIL RESPONSE TO ORR STATEMENT ON BREACH OF LICENCE CONDITION

Region & Route:

National

The Office of Rail Regulation today announced that it was giving Network Rail a £250,000 financial penalty for being in breach of a licence condition. Network Rail has been in charge of Britain’s rail infrastructure for just over three years and has been fully focussed on passengers and freight customers’ priorities of delivering a safe, better performing and more affordable railway.  Vast changes have been made and we have worked long and hard to put things right. The issue of published information relating to network capability is a long-standing one, dating back many years and one that is now being addressed as a matter of priority. Network Rail has invested heavily in new technology and equipment, gathering huge amounts of detailed information about the rail infrastructure. Our maintenance and engineering teams have put this information to good use, as the reliability, quality and performance of our infrastructure continues to improve. We have found some factual inaccuracies in a small portion of the inherited data on the capability of the network and this needs updating.  The plan to put this right has been agreed with the ORR and developed over the last few months with full visibility and involvement from them.  We will deliver this plan and make good this historical anomaly. We are disappointed that the Office of Rail Regulation has failed to recognise this as a long-standing, inherited issue and that a full corrective action plan has already been put in place.