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ORR reveals five-year budget for Network Rail.

http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2013/...udget-for.html

THE Office of Rail Regulation has published its final determination of Network Rail's spending during the five years from April 2014.

The headline figure is £38.3 billion, down from the £40.1 billion which NR had said it needed.

The total breaks down into roughly £21 billion for maintenance and renewals, but this also takes some special budgets into account, such as £500 million for the maintenance of structures, many of which are well over a century old.

The remaining £12.8 billion is for enhancements, and this capital investment will mostly be accounted for by electrification schemes. However, there will also be some smaller projects which are intended to increase capacity, including the Northern Hub in Manchester.

The ORR said Network Rail could achieve savings worth around £1.7 billion, but even so the infrastructure operator will be funded to achieve PPMs of 90 per cent or better on commuter and regional services. The bar is a little lower for intercity services.

The ORR said the company 'will need to improve standards of infrastructure management, network resilience, and safety', and that the cost of maintaining the network must come down by around 20 per cent.

Network Rail is being told that it must achieve the savings by introducing new technologies, better management of the railways and more efficient ways of working, but the ORR issued a reassurance over safety, saying that the budget 'will not come at the expense of safety. There will be increased dedicated funding of £109 million to close around 500 level crossings and improve safety at hundreds more of the highest risk crossings in Britain. There will be around £250 million to help improve safety of track workers, to be invested in new equipment and safer working practices.'