Assessment of Network Rail's delivery of Network Availability in CP6

Tender description

• Background information; The Periodic Review for CP6 (PR18) is underway. In July 2017, the UK and Scottish governments issued their respective High Level Output Statements (HLOS) and in October 2017 the Secretary of State for Transport issued the Statements of Funds Available (SOFA) . Based on this information, Network Rail is now writing its Route Strategic Plans (RSP). Unlike the previous Periodic Review, there will be a number of RSPs, each one covering the eight geographic Routes , The Freight and National Passenger Operator (FNPO) and the System Operator (SO). These RSPs were presented to ORR on 8th December, and will undergo further iteration, before final versions are submitted on 9th February 2018. Due to the publication of the Statement of Funds Available SoFA in October (in the previous periodic review in 2013-(PR13) - it was published in June of the equivalent year), this has constrained the timescales for reviewing the RSPs. Given the timescales for completing the Draft Determination, the ORR scrutiny of the plans needs to be substantially complete by the end of March 2018. Network Availability This piece of consultancy is centred on Network Rail's delivery of Network Availability in Control Period 6 (CP6 - April 2019 - March 2024). Network availability is availability of the network to run trains or in other words when it is not closed for engineering activity. There is a trade-off between Network Availability and efficiency. Very simply, a longer possession will be more efficient, but will have a bigger negative impact on Network Availability. The objective of the Network Availability measure is to encourage Network Rail to reduce the levels of disruption to passenger and freight customers caused by planned engineering work. Network Rail is giving Network Availability a lower priority in Control Period 6 than its customers might want. We would like to appoint a consultant to give their professional advice on whether ORR should use the EWIs (or a suitable qualitative alternative), and should these measures be Regulatory Outputs (i.e. mandatory for Network Rail to deliver), Indicators or Enablers (i.e. not mandatory for Network Rail to deliver). This will based on: • An assessment of the suitability of the EWIs as measures of Network Availability. • Whether there is another, more qualitative, approach to assessing Network Rail's delivery of Network Availability. • The views of Network Rail and its TOC and FOC customers on this issue This will inform what we will say in the Draft Determination about Network Availability.