Network Rail’s performance shows continued steady improvement
23 February 2006
ORR/03/06
The latest edition of the Network Rail Monitor, the quarterly report by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) on Network Rail’s performance, is published today with a companion edition for Scotland.
Bill Emery, Chief Executive of ORR said:
“I am pleased to note that Network Rail’s overall performance against most key measures continues to improve.
“There are, however, some aspects of performance which merit attention. These include delays to trains in Scotland and on the Western route. In both cases we are carrying out joint investigations with Network Rail, train companies, and other interested parties. We note that progress with renewals and enhancements activity continues to run well below the levels included in Network Rail’s plans and budgets.
“We will continue to monitor Network Rail’s performance closely and look forward to it continuing to improve.”
The Network Rail Monitor (Great Britain) for the third quarter of 2005–06 (18 September 2005 to 7 January 2006) shows:
- Safety: The index of precursors to major train accidents has risen slightly during the last year, but remains well below pre-2004 levels. The positive effect on the trend in the Precursor Indicator Measure (PIM) during 2003 and 2004 arising from the introduction of Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) has passed and the biggest risk precursor in the PIM is level crossing misuse.
- Train Performance: Overall, the Public Performance Measure (PPM) continued to improve reaching an annual average of 85.6% by the end of the third quarter of 2005-06, compared with 82.8% at the end of the same quarter of 2004-05. Delay attributable to Network Rail is falling, although it continues to account for slightly more than half of all delay minutes. While recognising that some Network Rail routes are delivering substantial improvements, ORR is looking for Network Rail to tackle problems on the Western route, which has delivered poorer performance in Q1, Q2 and Q3 than last year.
- Infrastructure Assets: Overall Network Rail continues to achieve reductions in asset failures, although the trend is slowing. Year-to-date asset failures are 3% better than the same period last year. However, Q3 figures are 3% worse than the same quarter last year, this deterioration being due to an increase in track faults and in temporary speed restrictions (TSRs), whereas Q2 showed a 7% year on year improvement.
- Expenditure: By the end of Q3 Network Rail were below budget by 11%, compared with the 15% for the whole of 2004-05. The largest variance in budget has been on enhancements, although there has also been significantly less spending on renewals, particularly of telecommunications, signalling and information systems.
- West Coast Main Line Route Modernisation: The infrastructure for the December 2005 timetable has been delivered. ORR is establishing when the full scope of journey time improvements will be achieved, with some tightening of the timetable scheduled for June and December 2006.
The Network Rail Monitor (Scotland) for the third quarter of 2005–06 (18 September 2005 to 7 January 2006) shows:
- Train Performance: Network Rail’s contribution to train performance in Scotland continues to cause concern. 84.5% of First ScotRail trains arrived on or close to time in the 12 months to the end of Q3. This is slightly better than the corresponding figure of 83.6% a year earlier and Network Rail is taking a range of performance-focused actions to address the situation. However the rate of improvement is still slower than for the network as a whole, where PPM improved by 2.7% over the same period. ORR has investigated and has called on Network Rail to bring together a cross-industry plan by the end of Q4 to drive performance up.
- Infrastructure Assets: Infrastructure failures remain slightly worse than last year in Scotland, in contrast to the network-wide trend of improvement. Condition of Track TSRs remain significantly worse than last year: up 67% compared with a GB improvement of 11%.
- Expenditure: Network Rail in Scotland is spending 13% less than planned expenditure in Q3, compared to an 11% disparity for GB as a whole.
Notes for editors
- The Network Rail Monitor (Great Britain) and a commentary is available here.
- The Network Rail Monitor (Scotland) and a commentary is available here. Railway outputs in Scotland will be funded separately by the Scottish Executive from 1 April 2006.
- The consultation document Network Rail Monitor is available here and also in hard copy from the ORR Librarian.
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