Great Western Coffee Shop

Network Rail says it will deliver a 15% reduction in train delays and almost 1,000 new services every day by 2021 under a £47.1bn five-year plan.

But there are no fresh promises of major projects after massive budgetary overruns in the last five-year plan left many schemes abandoned or delayed. The bulk of the 209-24 budget will be spent on maintenance, operations and renewals to make the most of the existing railway.

ORR seeks views on Network Rail’s strategic business plans for CP6

 Network Rail strategic business plans (SBPs) for CP6 are now available on its website. In a letter that we have issued today, we are inviting you to give us your views on any high-level and material issues regarding the plans, to inform our assessment of the SBPs. Our SBP assessment will lead to our draft determination in June 2018, setting out our proposed decisions on what Network Rail should deliver in CP6 and the funding it should have for this. We will consult on our draft determination over the summer.

 As set out in the letter, we welcome views by close on 6 March 2018.  We recognise that this is a relatively short period in which to respond. However, if comments are to inform our SBP assessment, we will need your feedback by this point. We are also only seeking high-level points.

 You may also wish to be aware that we have made some minor updates to our PR18 timetable.

 This forms part of our 2018 periodic review (PR18). PR18 will play an important role in determining what Network Rail should deliver in control period 6 (which we expect to cover 2019-2024), as well as the funding and incentives needed to support this.

Network Rail to put new projects on hold

Network Rail is to move away from big projects in its next five-year funding period in favour of spending its cash on maintaining its current network.

Britain's rail and track operator has published its plan from 2019 to 2024.

The company could spend up to £47bn, with the amount set aside for new schemes falling by 33% and the total for current improvements rising by 25%.

It also hopes to increase the number of female employees by 50%, or more than 3,000, to about 9,500.

Network Rail currently employs 38,000 people.

'More ambitious'

Chief executive Mark Carne told the BBC that the new funding period would be "more focused on the day-to-day operations".

He said: "The last five years has been about huge projects, like Thameslink, Crossrail, Great Western electrification and Edinburgh-Glasgow electrification. The next control period is slightly different."

Mr Carne denied the move was a backwards step, adding: "I don't think it's less ambitious at all, I think it's in a way more ambitious.

"We have 20,000 miles of track and 4,500,000 people every day who depend on the railway and I think it should be our primary responsibility to make sure that we run that network reliably and efficiently for them."
Network Rail is to move away from big projects in its next five-year funding period in favour of spending its cash on maintaining its current network.

Britain's rail and track operator has published its plan from 2019 to 2024.

The company could spend up to £47bn, with the amount set aside for new schemes falling by 33% and the total for current improvements rising by 25%.

It also hopes to increase the number of female employees by 50%, or more than 3,000, to about 9,500.

Network Rail currently employs 38,000 people.

'More ambitious'

Chief executive Mark Carne told the BBC that the new funding period would be "more focused on the day-to-day operations".

He said: "The last five years has been about huge projects, like Thameslink, Crossrail, Great Western electrification and Edinburgh-Glasgow electrification. The next control period is slightly different."

Mr Carne denied the move was a backwards step, adding: "I don't think it's less ambitious at all, I think it's in a way more ambitious.

"We have 20,000 miles of track and 4,500,000 people every day who depend on the railway and I think it should be our primary responsibility to make sure that we run that network reliably and efficiently for them."

A total of £18.5bn will go into the operation and maintenance side of the business and a similar amount will be allocated for renewing and replacing old infrastructure like signalling systems.

There is £10.1bn set aside for new projects, with most of that likely to go on improving the line between Manchester and Leeds.

That would probably go on upgrading existing tunnels, bridges and lines rather than a new Northern Powerhouse Railway.

The previous plan was called the biggest investment in Britain's railways since the Victorian era, with large-scale electrification supposed to reduce the cost of trains, increase reliability and reduce carbon emissions.

However, projects around the country have been shelved and Mr Carne added: "We've discovered the cost of electrification of the network is very expensive. It's very difficult to do because we have so little time to intervene and work on the network at night. So it's cost more to do that. In the meantime the trains are getting better."
_________________________________________
Analysis: Victoria Fritz, BBC transport correspondent

At first it was a footnote.

Four years on, the boss of Network Rail, Mark Carne, may regret calling an accountancy change statistical.

Transferring Network Rail's debt to the national balance sheet exposed its reliance on the money markets to cover shortfalls in funding.

With the figleaf gone, the appetite to embark on big trophy projects has diminished.

For now, Network Rail is going back to the bread and butter business of maintaining and renewing what it already owns. With greater funding comes greater scrutiny.

A recently-launched body, the System Operator, sits within Network Rail to assess the feasibility of rail franchises as they come up for renewal.

It is likely to have a busy few years ahead.
____________________________________________________

Mr Carne is stepping down from his £880,000 a year post later in 2018 and said: "By the time I leave I will have been in the job for four-and-a-half years. To do more than one five-year control period would be too much."

He welcomed the idea that he could be replaced by a woman.

"I think it would be great," he said. "We are hugely focused on increasing gender diversity and all forms of diversity in the rail industry and wouldn't it be wonderful to have a woman chief executive of the company?

"In the last four years alone, we have increased the number of women working in our company by 42% so we're really focused on this.

"I know, and I see it every day, that gender diverse teams just perform better than homogenous teams, so this is about great business performance as well as the moral and ethical responsibility to be fair."

There will be project investment - the Grauniad forgets that CP6 onwards, projects get authorised piecemeal, once they prove their worth, rather than at the start of each CP.

The publication of the Strategic Business Plan (SBP) is a major milestone in the ongoing process to determine Network Rail’s funding requirements for the five years to 2024 (Control Period 6, CP6). The plan represents Network Rail’s initial, but detailed view, following the publication of Governments’ (England & Wales and Scotland) high level output specifications (HLOS) and statements of funds available (SoFA). The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will now review the plan and make a draft determination of Network Rail’s funding needs in June, and a final determination in the autumn.

...oh, and the link to the SBP on the NR site is broken.  A bit like NR itself, actually...... ::)

CP5 funded projects to GRIP 1-8 that will finish in CP6
The following schemes are CP5 schemes which have some final delivery expected in CP6. These schemes are post-FID and are included in this plan:
 Stations – Access for All (AfA)
 GWEp close-out/snagging
 A2A Enhanced Access Points
 0-12mp CMEs and electronic securing
 A2A OLE campaign changes
 Crossrail close-out / snagging
 Filton Bank Four Tracking
 Interim Gatelines (Bristol Temple Meads)
 Bristol Parkway snagging
 DNO works
 Par and Tavistock MDUs

The table below shows the current position with respect to the “Hendy Tail”. The schemes in this table are still subject to a final investment decision and are
not included in this plan:
W001c Reading Independent Feeder (Bramley)
W015 Bristol East Junction
CR007 Acton to Willesden Electrification
W001a Filton Bank Electrification
W001a Wootton Bassett Jn to BTM Electrification
W001a Didcot to Oxford Electrification
W002a Western IEP Capability
W003a Henley and Windsor Electrification (Thames Valley Branches)
W003b Southcote to Basingstoke Electrification
DNO clearance works associated with the following electrification schemes:
W003a, W003b, CR007
W004 Thames Valley EMU Capability
W005 Western Rail Link to Heathrow
W006 Oxford Corridor Phase 2
W008 Bristol Temple Meads Capacity -platforms 0 &1 in Midland Shed
W009 West of England DMU Capability
W014 West of England Platform Extensions

Not a good announcement really.

Each CP should announce and implement

• a major project, for example rebuilding the Brighton - London Victoria line to offer double deck and four track stretches to dramatically increase train and passenger capacity.
• A continuing commitment to fully electrify all main and connect lines.
• A list of major work that is needed to improve capacity and resilience

A maintenance CP with a few dozen small projects shows a lack of ambition and commitment to improve our rail infrastructure

I thought the branches electrification had *all been cancelled? Seems Windsor & Henley still have a chance?

There are currently issues with the supporting structures associated with DOO CCTV as a number have fallen over in public areas (Platforms). The funding would be making a large assumption that these asset could last a further 2 years however recent inspections and incidents point to this not being viable

One of the side effects of churning out so many words is that you write something like this and don't spot it in the proof-reading (from WRSP P 103):

Level crossing safety reduction and asset improvement programme:

I don't buy the capacity argument for HS2.

And no. I don't buy the capacity argument for HS2.

W015 Bristol East Junction
W001a Filton Bank Electrification
W001a Wootton Bassett Jn to BTM Electrification
W002a Western IEP Capability
W008 Bristol Temple Meads Capacity -platforms 0 &1 in Midland Shed

Bristol Panel box is not likely to disappear anytime soon.  See topic here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=16746.0

There may be some green shoots of spring amongst the vast verbiage of these reports.

The Wessex section includes something called the "South of England Electrification" - Wokingham - Reigate!
(p35/6) and also electrification of, mysteriously, the "West of England line". The bottom of the electric spine is parked but not forgotten, for CP7 (p84).

The LNE EM section talks also "electric traction between Market Harborough/Kettering and..."(p45).

Also of "Electrification options of the route from Manchester Victoria to Leeds and on to York and Selby." (p44).

The SEP's of the LEP's also haven't given up on electrification. (Appendix K )

Life beyond ORR and Grayling,

OTC