Rail Regulator implements new part of the network code on changes to train operators’ track access rights

02 July 2004
ORR/32/04

    The Rail Regulator, Tom Winsor, has today given a notice implementing a new part (Part J) of the network code setting out how train operators’ track access rights can be changed in future, including a use it or lose it mechanism to ensure that capacity is used more efficiently.  The notice follows consultation with the industry on a draft of Part J which the Regulator published on 1 June 2004.   There have been no major changes following this consultation, although a number of detailed points have been changed.   These are explained in an accompanying document that the Regulator is publishing today, Part J of the network code: conclusions and notice of changes.

    Tom Winsor said:

    “The new Part J of the network code is a very important improvement to the existing contractual structure of the railways.  It sets out a number of new or strengthened mechanisms intended to ensure that capacity which is not being used – or is being significantly under-used – can be removed from the operator concerned and made available to others.  At the same time, these mechanisms provide valuable protections for train operators so that rights cannot be removed or adjusted without good cause and so that the operator can on sound grounds challenge a proposed surrender or adjustment of rights.  These mechanisms are particularly relevant to freight train operators, where competition between operators requires fair and efficient means of securing the transfer of rights for which an operator no longer has a reasonable commercial need.”

    • a process for the voluntary surrender or adjustment of access rights; 
    • a use it or lose it mechanism; 
    • a transfer mechanism where one freight operator wins a haulage contract from another and needs the associated track access rights to be transferred to it; 
    • mechanisms for adjusting a freight operator’s cordon caps under the use it or lose it and transfer mechanisms (these are restrictions on the use of rights at specific capacity-constrained parts of the network, and will require adjustment when a freight operator loses access rights); and 
    • rights review meetings at which freight operators will review their use of rights with Network Rail, with a view to giving up access rights that are no longer needed.

    The new Part J comes into effect on 10 January 2005.

    Notes for editors:

    1. Part J of the network code: conclusions and notice of changes is also available from the ORR Librarian, Sue MacSwan, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn, London EC1N 2TQ, tel: 020 7282 2001, fax: 020 7282 2045, e-mail: rail.library@orr.gsi.gov.uk.
    2. The most recent previous publications on this subject were Changes to access rights: final conclusions, Office of the Rail Regulator, London, June 2004, Model freight track access contract: draft conclusions, Office of the Rail Regulator, London, December 2003 and Changes to access rights and moderation of competition: draft conclusions, Office of the Rail Regulator, London, July 2003, are also available from the ORR Librarian.
    3. The network code (formally called the Railtrack Track Access Conditions) is a common set of rules applying to all parties to regulated track access contracts with Network Rail.   It covers certain matters, generally concerning industry processes, such as timetabling, which either need to be common to all train operators or where there are significant benefits in having commonality.  Condition C8 of the network code allows the Regulator to modify the network code, subject to various safeguards and procedural requirements, including a public interest test.

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