UK: The Office of Rail & Road has published three documents relating to the 2023 periodic review which will determine Network Rail’s outputs and funding for Control Period 7 (2024-29) and will in the future apply to Great British Railways, along with its response to the government’s consultation on proposed legislation to enact rail reforms.
The documents published on July 28 are:
- a consultation on ORR’s proposed policy framework for how it will hold the infrastructure manager (currently Network Rail) to account for the funding it will receive for CP7;
- a consultation on the measures ORR would use to hold the infrastructure manager to account;
- guidance to Network Rail on the production of its February 2023 Strategic Business Plan setting out what it intends to deliver in CP7, based on UK and Scottish government decisions about funding and outputs;
- ORR’s response to the government’s consultation on proposed legislative reforms to implement the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.
ORR expects to receive the UK government’s decisions on the level of funding it wants to provide the infrastructure manager with for England and Wales in October, and the Scottish government’s decision in November. Network Rail would then submit its strategic business plan in February 2023.
ORR will then produce a draft determination and, later in the year, a final determination setting out the decisions on what ORR will hold Network Rail to account for delivering over CP7. The determination will also set out how funding should be allocated across Network Rail’s different business units and priorities.
