1999-10-18 Closure of parts of stations (ORR, 1999)

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date 22 November 1999
source Office of the Rail Regulator
type Press release

note ORR/99/51

As part of the periodic review of Railtrack’s access charges, the Rail Regulator, Tom Winsor, has today issued a consultation document on usage charges paid by passenger train operators. This is the element of the access charges designed to recover the maintenance costs for wear and tear caused by individual trains running over a particular type of track, and now amounts to around 3% of the total passenger access charges.

Commenting on this consultation process Tom Winsor said: "I am also publishing a report by Booz Allen and Hamilton on this issue. Booz Allen and Hamilton’s report discusses a number of difficulties with Railtrack’s methodology and recommends an alternative approach. This consultation is about the way in which usage charges should be set for the next control period.

"The level to which track and vehicles are maintained has an effect each upon the other. I am also consulting on the introduction of a system of surcharges and rebates on the usage charge to reflect these effects. A potential benefit with this approach is that it would incentivise both Railtrack and train operators to maintain their vehicles in a way which avoids unnecessary damage to infrastructure and vehicles."

As part of the current periodic review, the Regulator asked Railtrack to carry out a programme of work to understand better how maintenance and renewal costs vary in relation to key factors. Railtrack have developed a methodology to calculate usage costs, which Booz Allen and Hamilton have reviewed for the Regulator.

Copies of the documents - The periodic review of Railtrack's access charges: usage charges, a technical consultation document; and Railway Infrastructure Cost Causation: a report to the Rail Regulator from Booz Allen and Hamilton are available from : Sue MacSwan, ORR Library, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn, London EC1N 2TQ. Tel: 0207 282 2001; Fax: 0207 282 2045; e-mail: orr@dial.pipex.com/

Note for editors:

1. The Booz Allen and Hamilton report referred to is a consultants’ report on track usage charges commissioned earlier in the year by the Regulator. It is not related to the report from the same consultants on Railtrack’s network stewardship published on the 13 April 1999. The Regulator will publish his response to that document shortly.

2. The Regulator is due to publish provisional conclusions on Railtrack's access charges next month.

Railhub Archive ::: 1999-11-22 ORR-001