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Structure of costs and charges review
On this page you will find all documents relating to the structure of costs and charges review 2005.
- Scope of review
- Background
- Phases of the review
- Progress
- Presentations
- Related documents
- Consultants’ papers
Scope of review
ORR committed to carry out a review of the structure of charges in its 2004-07 business plan. In the light of changes in the industry structure following the Government’s White Paper, ORR carried out a ‘structure of costs and charges review’, which contained the following elements:
- a review of the structure of costs, including the development of an infrastructure cost model to calculate the cost of operating, maintaining, renewing and enhancing the railway infrastructure for different levels and types of use; and
- a review of the structure of track access charges paid by franchised passenger train operators to Network Rail.
Background
The structure of track access charges for passenger franchise operators had previously been reviewed as part of the 2000 periodic review of access charges. A review of the structure of costs and charges was therefore considered necessary at that time, for the following reasons:
- there was a need for better route and local cost information to meet customers needs and reflect the changes in the structure and functioning of the industry, in particular due to the Government’s Rail Review White Paper. This set out a number of changes including the devolution of increased powers and responsibilities to local and regional bodies and the requirement for ORR to analyse the costs of alternative specifications of rail outputs for Government and other funders;
- there was evidence that costs and charges may have diverged, particularly since the 2003 access charges review; and
- there had been further industry research on cost causation carried out since 2000 that was not represented in the calculation of the existing structure of charges.
Phases of the review
A four phase process for the review was proposed, as follows:
- phase 1: established the framework for the review, including the setting of objectives, establishing economic principles and clarifying the requirements of the Government and other funders;
- phase 2: undertook incremental analysis of the current cost base, which has allowed:
- phase 2a: geographical breakdown of current infrastructure costs to inform devolvement of powers and responsibilities to devolved administrations and local and regional authorities;
- phase 2b: revision of franchised passenger track access charges.
- phase 3: further analysis of costs for alternative specifications of infrastructure use; and
- phase 4: creation of a computer based model, based on the analytical work from phase 3, to estimate the incremental cost for alternative levels of infrastructure use.
Progress
Phase 1 of this review started formally with the publication of the Structure of Costs and Charges: Initial Consultation Document on 2 November 2004.
The Emerging views and key issues document was published on 8 April 2005 along with an initial report prepared in January 2005 by ORR's consultants Booz Allen & Hamilton on the revision of the variable usage and electrification asset usage charges.
Presentations
On 22 July 2005 ORR held a seminar on the Structure of Costs and Charges Review at the City University in London. Presentations were given by:
- ORR
- Network Rail
- English Welsh & Scottish Railway
- Booz Allen Hamilton (ORR's consultants)
- TTCI (UK) (ORR's consultants)
- AEA Technology (ORR's consultants)
Related documents
The following documents are available for download as PDF files:
Consultants' reports