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Track access rights on the West Coast Main Line

Since the spring of 2010, we have been working with the industry on the long-term allocation of capacity on the West Coast Main Line. In anticipation of both the existing Virgin West Coast franchise and the associated track access contract held by West Coast Trains Limited expiring on 1 April 2012, we:

  • wrote to the industry on 14 May 2010, seeking to identify all operators’ aspirations, both passenger and freight, for new or amended access rights on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) and to set out the process and timescales involved;
  • wrote to Network Rail on 30 June 2010, requesting that it produce a capacity and performance report analysing those various aspirations against the available capacity and taking account of any safety considerations, by Friday 1 October 2010;
  • requested that applications be submitted by the end of October 2010. We received a number of applications for either new or additional access rights, including one from the Department for Transport for the new franchise. The applications we received are listed below.;
  • issued our overall decision on the access applications that were submitted to us on 2 March 2011. The letter setting out our decision, and our reasons for reaching it, can be found in the related documentation. ORR decision letters and other documentation relating to the individual applications in question can be found by following the links under the heading “WCML access applications”. A new ten-year track access contract for the West Coast franchise, commencing in April 2012 has now been approved.

In accordance with the decision we issued on 2 March 2011, Network Rail is now working with the industry on a recast of the West Coast timetable to be implemented incrementally, with the first stage to take effect from December 2013.

Any enquiries should be directed to:

Dave Wearing
Track Access Executive
Office of Rail Regulation
One Kemble Street
London
WC2B 4AN

Email: david.wearing@orr.gsi.gov.uk
Tel: 0207 282 2126 

Last updated: 14 October 2011

WCML access applications

Related documentation