Network Rail was still not doing well enough in providing services in a financially efficient way, according to the Office of Rail Regulation. However, the company had improved train punctuality to its best level in 10 years.

The ORR announced its mixed verdict in its latest quarterly update on Network Rail. Bill Emery, ORR chief executive, said he wanted Network Rail to spend 21 per cent – or about £1bn – less by the end of 2013 to deliver the same volume of services as it currently offers, “to start to address the gap in its performance compared to its peers in Europe and elsewhere”.

Network Rail spends about £5bn-£5.5bn each year, and the ORR wants it to cut back to about £4bn. Mr Emery believes that Network Rail could eventually improve by “at least 35 per cent”, which would mean shaving almost £2bn off expenditure. The ORR said it had calculated this by making comparisons with overseas rail companies and British non-rail businesses.

The ORR said punctuality had improved to 90.1 per cent for the three months to June 21 compared with 89.2 per cent in the same period last year. Safety, and the reliability of the infrastructure, had also improved.

However, Network Rail needs to cut engineering-related disruptions to passenger services by 37 per cent within five years to meet ORR targets for engineering stoppages.

Engineering shutdowns on the West Coast main line have caused a number of line closures over the summer, while Network Rail has also missed performance targets on the East Coast main line.

The ORR acknowledged the importance of concerns voiced by Virgin Trains about whether it would be able to launch its high-frequency service on the West Coast main line, which has been plagued by disruptions, ahead of the December deadline.

Network Rail said earlier this year that its original timetable would probably not be met if it stuck to its plan. It responded by devising a new plan, but only eight of the 25 key milestones set out in it have been achieved so far.

Mr Emery said a failure to meet the December deadline could force the ORR to intervene, “representing a substantial failure on the part of Network Rail”.

Network Rail said passengers were enjoying the best train punctuality for well over a decade. “This is a record we are continuing to push to new levels. Reducing disruption caused by improvement work is a central pillar of our plans in the years ahead.”

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Network Rail told to cut disruption by a third

Contract Journal: 29 Aug 2008
By Neil Gerrard

The Office of Rail Regulation has told Network Rail it wants the maintenance company to cut disruption from engineering work by 37% over the next five years.

It has also ordered Network Rail to improve the way it manages engineering work in order to reduced unplanned delays when work overruns, according to the Guardian.

The call follows a series of overruns in engineering work on the West Coast Mainline at the New Year, which saw Network Rail fined £14m.

The most serious of the overruns occurred on overhead line engineering work at Rugby.

Despite this, figures showed that 90.1% of trains ran on time in the period April to June this year - the best for 10 years.

ORR chief executive Bill Emery said: "The latest figures are excellent news for most passengers. However, the regular closure of parts of the network for engineering work causes substantial disruption and inconvenience to many passengers and freight customers.

"Over the next five years NR must continue to carry out a full schedule of maintenance and renewal of the infrastructure, together with a massive programme of enhancements to increase network capacity."