Monday 18 October 2010

CSR delays start of ORR Periodic Review

This from the ORR...

The start of the next periodic review (PR13) – the process which will establish the plan for funding Britain’s railways from 2014-2019 – is to be delayed, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) announced today.

ORR had planned to begin the PR13 process in November 2010. However, the regulator has confirmed that it will delay PR13 so that it can fully take account of the Department for Transport’s strategic reviews on Network Rail’s structure and on franchising, and Sir Roy McNulty’s value for money study.

The regulator now intends to begin PR13 by early summer 2011 in a revised plan that will still see the periodic review deliver final rail funding and output determinations by October 2013, as originally scheduled.

UPDATE: This from The man by the photocopier...

The ORR press release you quote is dated 11 October, but was indeed distributed today (18 October).

One has also noted a letter from a Mr B. Emery on the selfsame matter, dated 14 October!

Why the curious delay? Not, one hopes, the result of any intervention from DafT?

Such things cannot be.

But if they can, surely we should be told?

UPDATE: This from the ORR Press Office...

As a long-time Railway Eye reader, I wanted to reply to a recent post to clarify the position.

Human error crept in I am afraid regarding the dates, no DfT conspiracy.

The letter was sent to the industry on afternoon of 14 October to give everyone a chance to hear it first hand. We then alerted the media yesterday, 18 October of our decision to delay the start of the next periodic review.

The press notice should have been dated 18 October; well done to everyone who spotted the mistake!