The chief executive of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has said that “timely decisions are now needed” to deliver new and efficient timetables on two main lines.
The organisation has made clear its views on what actions are required for the West Coast Main Line (WCML) and East Coast Main Line (ECML), saying their major timetable projects have now reached crucial decision-making points.
The aim behind the new timetables is to ensure a more efficient use of capacity and better resilience to disruption. This will support performance for the benefit of both passengers and train operators.
In a letter to Network Rail and Department for Transport (DfT), the rail regulator set out its understanding of the necessary decisions and issues needing resolution to ensure successful delivery.
West Coast Main Line timetable
Planned for December 2022, the WCML project is now less than 40 weeks from implementation. However, ORR says the issues below need further progress soon to support the timetable delivery:
- Network Rail needs to communicate its plan for access and processes for timetabling. Operators (and their funders) will then need to act in line with that plan.
- Contractually, train and freight operators should have submitted timetable applications by now, providing operators and Network Rail with a certainty on the train services they can run.
- Network Rail and DfT need to ensure ongoing power supply and platforming projects conclude as planned.
- In producing the timetable, Network Rail also needs to provide its conclusions on capacity and performance for existing access applications. Only then can ORR determine any disputed applications for this section of the network.
East Coast Main Line timetable
ORR says the ECML project has not yet confirmed the timetable it will implement in May 2023. Given the complexity of the options being considered and issues to resolve here, it says key decisions need to be made by Network Rail and DfT soon. It says:
- A decision on the extra platform capacity issue at Newcastle is needed in the next month.
- A plan is needed to resolve access and timetabling applications in time, in accordance with contractual obligations. Operators (supported by their funders) will then need to act in accordance with the plan.
- Network Rail needs to manage the inclusion of freight access applications into the timetable and its projects to mitigate performance impacts.
ORR drew attention to how ECML has faced access rights and timetabling issues for several years. Delaying decisions beyond April 2022, it says, risks the same late decision on go/no-go as it observed in 2021. This resulted in uncertainty for train and freight operators requesting access to the network.
John Larkinson, ORR chief executive said: “Industry has worked together well to deliver service pattern changes for recent timetables, but these were not full recasts of services at this level of complexity.
“Timely decisions are now needed to show lessons have been learnt and to provide passenger and freight train operators with certainty when planning services.”
