Climate change dictates networrk rail’s five-year expenditure

Control Period 7

Network

Philip Haigh

Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk

BATTLING climate change and its effect on Network Rail’s drains, cuttings and embankments sits at the centre of the company’s five-year plan, published on April 2.

The plan covers Control Period 7, which runs from April 1 2024 to March 31 2029. NR will spend £45.4 billion to operate, maintain and renew its 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts, thousands of signals and level crossings, and stations.

“Tackling climate change, safely improving train performance, and adapting and responding to changing commuter habits, while managing an ageing infrastructure, requires the whole industry to rally for the benefits of all rail users,” said NR Chief Executive Andrew Haines.

“While there are challenges and opportunities ahead, our mission is constant - we’re here to connect people and goods with where they need to be. The railway is part of the fabric of our everyday lives and has been for generations.”

Each of NR’s five regions (see panel) produces its own plan and has its own share of NR’s income, most of which comes from taxpayers via the Department for Transport (DfT) and Transport Scotland (TS).

DfT will pay £27.5bn (expressed in NR’s plan as a cash price) and TS will pay £2.3bn, with access charges from train and freight operators bringing in £13.8bn, on top of commercial income of £1.7bn. NR’s figures include the £4.3bn it expects to spend on electricity for trains, but it charges operators the same amount.

In NR’s spending column (see table for regional breakdown) sits operations (£4.4bn), support (£5.3bn), maintenance (£12.6bn), renewals (£19.3bn), industry costs (£2.0bn), and risk funding (£1.8bn).

NR noted that inflation had eroded £1.3bn from the sums the two governments pledged around 18 months ago, and it continues to see inflation as a challenge to its spending plans.

When DfT and TS first announced their ‘Statement of Funds Available’ (SoFA), the figures in them represented a small real-terms increase in NR funding compared with CP6 (2019-24). But inflation now means NR has slightly less money than it had in CP6.