The Office of Rail and Road has approved Network Rail’s plan to spend £35bn making Britain’s railways more reliable and focused on passengers’ needs over the five years from April 2019.
The spending split will be £31bn for England and Wales and £4bn in Scotland.
The regulator has now approved £24.3bn to be spent in Great Britain on maintaining (£7.7bn) and renewing (£16.6bn) the existing railway, with renewal work seeing a 17% increase from the £14.2bn in CP5.
Renewal spend has been lifted after the ORR challenged Network Rail to make more progress towards long-term asset sustainability.
| CP5/CP6 spending plans £m (17/18 prices) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | Scotland | |||
| CP5 | CP6 | CP5 | CP6 | |
| Operations | £2,607m | £3,186m | £235m | £239m |
| Support | £1,768m | £2,314m | £219m | £295m |
| Maintenance | £6,040m | £6,977m | £121m | £715m |
| Renewals | £12,535m | £14,581m | £1,683m | £2,061m |
For both passengers and freight operators, this will help cut delays caused by infrastructure failures, such as track defects.
The ORR has also confirmed Network Rail’s plans for a significant funding and resource boost for its timetabling and planning functions, with forecast spend almost doubling from around £145m in CP5 to over £270m in CP6.
This part of Network Rail can now employ around 100 new staff from the current total of around 700.
The five-year plans will see Network Rail become much more locally focused, with each of its eight geographic routes having its own budget, delivery plans and scorecards.
| England & Wales geographic route spend, total CP6 (£m) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Operations & Maintenance | Renewals | Other | Total |
| Anglia | 1,185m | 1,588m | 1,054m | 3,826m |
| LNEEM | 2,624m | 3,322m | 1,985m | 7,931m |
| LNW | 3,411m | 3,203m | 2,109m | 8,724m |
| Southeast | 2,018m | 2,346m | 1,689m | 6,052m |
| Wales | 678m | 957m | 349m | 1,984m |
| Wessex | 1,030m | 1,455m | 964m | 3,449m |
| Western | 1,286m | 1,627m | 933m | 3,846m |
In addition, ORR has strengthened local routes’ ability to buy goods and services they need locally rather than centrally, where it offers better value for money.
This is part of a shift in approach to give more responsibility to Network Rail’s routes, which are best placed to deliver for local passengers and freight users.
Original Article: www.constructionenquirer.com
