Depot access agreements

A depot access agreement provides a train operator with permission for its trains to use a light maintenance depot and to obtain light maintenance services. These agreements, and any amendments to them, must be approved by us, otherwise they are void.

All approved agreements and subsequently approved amendments are held on our public register.

Where, in significant cases, we have published decisions for approvals, these decisions and the background papers from the relevant consultation exercise will also be published.

For details of current applications or recent decisions, please refer to our consultations section.

To help the industry, we have published:

• Standard template depot access contract
• Depot access agreement for a non-toc beneficiary

Depot access conditions

Depot access contracts incorporate by reference the relevant depot access conditions and depot-specific annexes.

The depot access conditions are standard rules which govern the relationship between all the contracting parties at a depot, covering matters such as the process for agreeing changes to the depot, and the remedies available when things go wrong. Two sets of depot access conditions are available:

• National Depot Access Conditions - England and Wales
• Annex to National Depot Access Conditions
• National Depot Access Conditions (Scotland) is not available as an electronic document, but is held on the public register in the ORR library.

The depot-specific annexes cover the details relevant to the specific depot, such as a depot plan and a description of the services and facilities, and, where relevant, include a copy of the depot lease.

At depots operated by franchisees the annexes also include a copy of the standard collateral agreement between Network Rail and each beneficiary, under which a beneficiary can enforce Network Rail's obligations under the depot access conditions should the depot facility owner fail to enforce them itself.

Page last updated: 27 October 2009

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