RDG urges ORR to collaborate on access charges

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) is calling on the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to work with the industry on track access charges, ahead of the ORR’s Periodic Review of Network Rail’s charges that begins later this year.

The RDG has spent two years assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the current charging regime and examining how changes to it could affect the industry. It says that without wider changes to industry arrangements, the impact of significant changes to infrastructure charges is likely to be limited.

A particular focus of the RDG’s review was the performance impact of increasing traffic and how charges should reflect its impact on the network. A possible administered scarcity charge scored highly in the assessment, as did the inclusion of a method of reimbursing passenger operators for passenger compensation. A more frequent access charge supplement recalculation, to reflect variations in the volumes of renewal and maintenance, also scored highly in the assessment.

• For more on this, read RAIL 792, published on January 20.
• A detailed analysis of the RDG's review of charges will appear in RAIL 793, published on February 3.