08 August 2003
Rail regulator Tom Winsor could protect train operators from competition under their track access contracts in certain rare circumstances.
In proposals published on August 1, he said there were 'a very limited range of circumstances where it might be appropriate for me to approve contractual protection from competition'.
These could be where protection was needed to make a major investment viable, or where an operator could otherwise not
cross-subsidise a loss-making service.
Winsor has also set out details of when and how an operator's access rights could be modified or removed. Again, he expected that this would occur rarely, for example where an operator had bid for access rights but failed to use them.
He also launched a consultation on ways of bringing the track access contract for freight into line with that for passenger operators.
Winsor said he wanted to give both freight operators and Network Rail 'stronger incentives to improve the performance of rail freight relative to other modes'.
At present EWS Railway has about 75% of the freight market, and Freightliner 16%, with five others sharing the remainder. Coal accounts for around one-third of the rail freight tonnage.
PFaug2003
