There have been a whole slew of reports in the press appearing overnight about the Office of Road and Rails report into Network Rail - whatever the headlines the reports cover both the poor progress of the CP5 plan and the poor performance on punctuality/reliability.
Network Rail to be investigated by regulator over reliability BBC News
Network Rail probed over punctuality as profits slide The Independent
Network Rail faces watchdog probe into its poor performance Telegraph.co.uk
Network Rail's five-year plan way off track in first year, regulator warns The Guardian
Call to shake up Network Rail funding Financial Times
and many others.
While the reliability figures are bad enough, the report on CP5 progess is even more disheartening.
"The ORR report showed that more than a third of the “milestones” in major enhancement projects had been missed, failing to reach 30 out of 84 targets in the first year of the 2014-19 plan. The regulator said “the high number of missed milestones has raised serious questions about Network Rail’s ability to deliver future projects on time”. Fewer than one in four of the renewals to overhead lines scheduled for this year have been carried out, and only a third of signalling works. (The Guardian)
Track renewals are 7 per cent behind target, signalling renewals 63 per cent, and overhead line renewals 77 per cent. Meanwhile, poorly planned engineering works have caused massive disruption and chaos at London Bridge and Victoria stations in the capital. (FT)
The reports have obviously led to speculation about delayed and canned projects....
A review this summer is likely to see major electrification projects shelved until the next decade as escalating costs add billions to the bill.... The electrification of the Midland mainline – described by Network Rail as “critical to delivering a reliable and sustainable railway and tackling overcrowding” on the line from London to Sheffield – could now be axed. (The Guardian)
.....and the future of Network Rail,
(The regulator) wants to reform this relationship so government subsidies go directly to train operators, whose revenues are more closely tied to keeping passengers satisfied. This could include raising track access charges, which are currently 20-25 per cent of what they would be if they reflected Network Rail’s true costs. The government subsidy would then be channelled through train operators, which would use it to help pay track access charges. “This would create proper commercial arrangements between Network Rail and the train companies and incentivise both sides to keep costs down,” (FT)
Patrick McLoughin, the transport secretary, is understood to be resisting pressure from the Treasury to explore a possible break-up and privatisation of Network Rail, but on Thursday he refused to rule it out in response to questions in the Commons. (Guardian)
Finally, if this wasn't bad enough, Network Rail produced their annual results showing a halving of profits and debt up by £5bn.
The report underlines problems at Network Rail that have caused consternation in Whitehall since the rail infrastructure owner and operator’s burgeoning debt came onto the government’s balance sheet last September. Annual results published on Thursday showed the debt had risen to £37.8bn from just under £33bn in 2014. (Guardian)
A lot to take in at this time in the morning, but I don't see a government now planning to legislate that government spending must operate at a surplus letting things continue as they are.
Network Rail to be investigated by regulator over reliability BBC News
Network Rail probed over punctuality as profits slide The Independent
Network Rail faces watchdog probe into its poor performance Telegraph.co.uk
Network Rail's five-year plan way off track in first year, regulator warns The Guardian
Call to shake up Network Rail funding Financial Times
and many others.
While the reliability figures are bad enough, the report on CP5 progess is even more disheartening.
"The ORR report showed that more than a third of the “milestones” in major enhancement projects had been missed, failing to reach 30 out of 84 targets in the first year of the 2014-19 plan. The regulator said “the high number of missed milestones has raised serious questions about Network Rail’s ability to deliver future projects on time”. Fewer than one in four of the renewals to overhead lines scheduled for this year have been carried out, and only a third of signalling works. (The Guardian)
Track renewals are 7 per cent behind target, signalling renewals 63 per cent, and overhead line renewals 77 per cent. Meanwhile, poorly planned engineering works have caused massive disruption and chaos at London Bridge and Victoria stations in the capital. (FT)
The reports have obviously led to speculation about delayed and canned projects....
A review this summer is likely to see major electrification projects shelved until the next decade as escalating costs add billions to the bill.... The electrification of the Midland mainline – described by Network Rail as “critical to delivering a reliable and sustainable railway and tackling overcrowding” on the line from London to Sheffield – could now be axed. (The Guardian)
.....and the future of Network Rail,
(The regulator) wants to reform this relationship so government subsidies go directly to train operators, whose revenues are more closely tied to keeping passengers satisfied. This could include raising track access charges, which are currently 20-25 per cent of what they would be if they reflected Network Rail’s true costs. The government subsidy would then be channelled through train operators, which would use it to help pay track access charges. “This would create proper commercial arrangements between Network Rail and the train companies and incentivise both sides to keep costs down,” (FT)
Patrick McLoughin, the transport secretary, is understood to be resisting pressure from the Treasury to explore a possible break-up and privatisation of Network Rail, but on Thursday he refused to rule it out in response to questions in the Commons. (Guardian)
Finally, if this wasn't bad enough, Network Rail produced their annual results showing a halving of profits and debt up by £5bn.
The report underlines problems at Network Rail that have caused consternation in Whitehall since the rail infrastructure owner and operator’s burgeoning debt came onto the government’s balance sheet last September. Annual results published on Thursday showed the debt had risen to £37.8bn from just under £33bn in 2014. (Guardian)
A lot to take in at this time in the morning, but I don't see a government now planning to legislate that government spending must operate at a surplus letting things continue as they are.
