More supply chain woe

As part of the exciting DfT Annual Business Plan process swinging cuts are in view.

Eye readers will be aware that all TOCs have had to submit submit Annual Business Plans (ABPs) to DfT for 2023/24. 

The Requests for Business Plans (RfBPs) issued by DfT to all TOCs at the end of last year mandated budget cuts of circa 15% (and in some cases even more) against already demanding 2022/23 budgets.

DfT is due to give its final determination on individual 2023/24 TOC budgets in February.

Expect your local railway to get much grubbier with poorer customer service as TOCs cut back on anything other than absolutely essential activity.

More good news for an increasingly hollowed out supply chain.

RDG: They were only playing leapfrog!

Exciting news from the latest minutes of the Rail Delivery Group! 
 
‘The working group continues to discuss how to help inform DfT’s response to the consultation on the role of the ORR.’.

Hmmmm!

So an RDG Working Group (staffed from NR and TOCs) is telling DfT how to respond to a consultation (which was co-written by DfT and ORR, and has now closed) on what ORR might, or might not, do in the future.

Cosy.

Altogether now: "One staff officer jumped right over another staff officer's back. And another staff officer jumped right over that other staff officer's back..."

ORR gives regulatory thumbs up to Alliances

This from the Office of Rail Regulation...

We support the concept of alliances and welcome their potential to add value in the rail sector, delivering benefits not only for the parties involved but also for rail users and taxpayers. We will help prospective alliance partners develop their plans and we welcome discussions - the earlier we are involved in these the better we will be able to help.

That is all, although My Learned Friends will no doubt wish to pour expensively (shurely, 'exhaustively'? Ed) over the details here.

UPDATE: This from another satisfied reader...

Not for the first time do I have to correct the illiterate content of this so-called blog.

In a blatant and ill-informed attacked on the legal profession, a fine body of men and women who are all that stands between the privatised rail industry and anarchy, you refer to them pouring - presumably a snide reference to the consumption of alcohol.

In my experience they spend long hours into the night poring over legal documents to ensure that the railway runs smoothly.

I remain your etc...
R.Slicker

It's a fair cop!