2014-19 will see significant investment in projects which affect the West Coast. The Northern Hub will provide extra capacity and shorten journey times across the north of England. It will also improve connectivity at some of our major stations such as Manchester Piccadilly and Warrington Bank Quay.

Nearly half of train operating companies’ revenue is paid to Network Rail. So we obviously have a real interest in Network Rail being an efficient organisation.  The ORR will require Network Rail to make £1.7 billion efficiency savings, significant when set against the £21 billion budget for the period.

Finally, there will be a change in the punctuality targets Network Rail must meet on the West and East Coast routes. The new requirement will combine the familiar Public Performance Measure (PPM) of trains which arrive at final destination within 10 minutes of scheduled time with a less well-known measure of Cancellations and Significant Lateness (CaSL). In essence the change combines a slightly lower target covering trains which are slightly late with the introduction of a new target relating to trains which are very late. I believe this is a positive move – it will incentivise Network Rail to reduce the wide fluctuations in daily performance we currently see and provide a more consistent experience for customers.  
      

Click here to read the ORR determination


Click here to read more about the Northern Hub