By Richard Johnstone | 7 July 2014
The Office of Rail Regulation has ordered government-owned Network Rail to pay back £53m to the Treasury after failing to meet punctuality targets in the five years between 2009 and 2014.
Analysing the performance of the firm, which maintains and upgrades the railways across Britain, the regulator said punctuality over the period, known as Control Period 4, ‘fell significantly short’.
An overall target of 92.5% of all trains on time by March 31 2014 had been set as part of Network Rail’s funding deal with government. However, a punctuality level of only 90% was achieved.
In particular, the number of long distance passenger trains on time was significantly below target, the regulator stated. Around 92% should have arrived on time in 2013/14, but only 86.9% did so after Network Rail failed to deliver all of its improvements.
After taking account of issues beyond Network Rail’s control, such as extreme weather conditions, the ORR ordered the company to return £53.1m to the Treasury as a penalty for poor performance on long-distance services. This will be used to speed up internet access on commuter trains across England and Wales, the government has announced
Today’s analysis also found that Network Rail’s upgrade programme was largely delivered on time and budget over the control period, with 98 of 118 projects either completed early or to deadline.
Publishing the evaluation, ORR chief executive Richard Price said Network Rail’s performance would continue to be under the spotlight.
‘Network Rail has been successful in modernising and improving Britain’s railways over the past five years, during a period which has seen a record rise in passenger numbers,’ he said.
‘Punctuality is important to passengers. Network Rail committed to improve train punctuality between 2009 and 2014, and was funded to do so. But it did not deliver its commitments for passengers who travel on long distance and London and South East services. Network Rail fell significantly short of punctuality for long distance services, so it is right that money is returned to funders.’
Responding to the announcement, Network Rail said it accepted it had fallen short of some punctuality targets, in part due to its failure to reduce infrastructure faults quickly enough.
Chief executive Mark Carne said: ‘At the same time, the sharp increase in passenger demand has led us to run more trains at peak times, even when we know this will lead to a more congested railway and that punctuality may suffer.
‘The industry is now benefiting from significant funding but there remain challenges following many decades of underinvestment. Getting train reliability back on track is a key priority for us over the next three years in particular and we have good plans to improve the underlying reliability of our assets alongside significant investment to increase capacity and relieve congestion.’
