Rail infrastructure inquiry launched

 

The Transport committee is seeking responses for its rail infrastructure inquiry.

The consultation seeks views on whether the current system of planning and delivering rail infrastructure investment is adequate.

The current system sees much of the funding going to Network Rail through five year cycles. This systems allows the government to set strategic objectives for the rail network, providing a plan for what work is required and what funding is available.

The process for deciding the funding and outputs of Network Rail for Control Period 6 (CP6: April 2019 – March 2024) has begun and will complete next year. Some £47.9Bn has been set aside by the government for CP6, £34.7Bn from government grant, to be supplemented by track access charges and commercial income.

With some ambitious plans for the network, such as several electrification schemes, already scaled back, CP6 is expecting some cost overruns and projects postponed from CP5. Fluctuating market conditions effecting rail supply chain companies, can delay projects and increase cost, and private sector investment in the rail industry is concentrated on rolling stock with a relatively small proportion spent on rail infrastructure.

Therefore the committee would like to investigate different ways of deciding the funding and outputs of Network Rail for the control period 2019-2024, and look at whether the current system of planning and delivering investment in rail infrastructure is adequate.

Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Lilian Greenwood MP, said upon announcing the inquiry: “Government has started work on funding and spending plans for Network Rail in Control Period 6. This should address the failures of the current control period: scrapped electrification and enhancement projects; uncompleted work tipping from the current control period to the next; and deep disquiet about differences in regional funding.

“We will consider whether the mechanism of control periods is the best way to manage investment in rail infrastructure. At a time when UK passengers have seen ticket prices rising far faster than their wages, the Committee will examine whether the current system of planning and delivering investment is giving us the infrastructure we need if we are to have a modern 21st century railway.”

The Committee is particularly interested in submissions addressing:

The impact of postponing renewals from the current control period into the next and the implications of the Secretary of State’s decision to remove enhancements from the control period process:

• The adequacy of the control period process in enabling the delivery of long term rail infrastructure objectives;
• Whether Network Rail’s long term planning process is effective in providing the industry with strategic direction beyond the five year control period;
• The reasons for the apparent regional disparity in rail infrastructure funding, and the mechanisms by which regions may have a greater input into planning and delivering rail infrastructure, including through route devolution within Network Rail and entitles such as Transport for the North and Midlands Connect;
• The possible implications of the Government’s policy of increasing the share of private sector financing in rail infrastructure; and
• Whether steps taken by the Government and Network Rail to increase private sector investment for rail infrastructure are adequate and how continuing barriers to private sector investment might be addressed.

Written submissions should be sent via the Rail infrastructure inquiry page, with a deadline of Monday 18th December 2017.

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