After more than two years of industry and stakeholder engagement and analysis, the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), the independent regulator that oversees Network Rail’s activity, today announced its final determination.
This sets out what the ORR expects to see delivered within the funding available following its assessment of Network Rail’s plans for the next five-year control period – CP7 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029).
Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said: “The rail sector enjoys an almost unique level of funding certainty and that is a privilege that comes with serious responsibilities. More than £43 billion will be spent over the next five years to deliver a safer and better railway for passengers and freight customers. Today’s announcement gives clarity and certainty for the railway and our supply chain partners and will now enable us to continue building on our detailed delivery plans.
“The UK and Scottish Governments’ funding commitment and today’s news is a significant vote of confidence in the industry’s future. The impact of inflation, tight public finances, and the need to invest more to manage the impact of more frequent extreme weather on the infrastructure does mean that our funding will need to go further than ever before.
“Throughout CP7 we are committing to delivering extensive investments across the length and breadth of the network. In addition to improvements to safety, we’ll work to boost train performance, usher in new technologies, invest significantly more funds to tackle climate change as well as make £3.6 billion of efficiency savings.”
Following today’s announcement, Network Rail will now carefully review the detail of the regulator’s determination, continue the planning work to develop its detailed CP7 delivery plan by the end of March 2024.
Image credit: Network Rail
