Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to Parliamentary answers of 9 May to Questions 140753 and 140754 on Network Rail: Standards, whether the Office for Rail and Road’s regulatory approach to Network Rail in Control Period 6 will (a) benchmark and (b) measure route level (i) unit costs and (ii) productivity.

Government has made clear its expectation that the management of rail infrastructure should become more efficient over the course of CP6. The precise regulatory approach adopted is a matter for the independent Office of Rail and Road, not for Government.

ORR has a stated aspiration that, during CP6, the railway realises the benefits from informed comparisons between routes based on more extensive data with which to benchmark route performance. In CP6 ORR will require Network Rail’s routes to provide better analysis of changes to their costs, including unit costs and productivity. ORR will report on and compare these in its routine Monitor and Annual Efficiency and Finance Assessment of Network Rail publications.

ORR will formally indicate its preferred regulatory approach in its Draft Determination, which we expect to be published for consultation during the course of June.