Advice on factors influencing the growth of rail freight

Great British Railways - The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail

The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail made a number of commitments on rail freight, including:

• a statutory duty for GBR to promote rail freight to secure economic, environmental and social benefits for the nation;

• a new rules-based track access regime;

• support to rail freight growth through more flexible use of train paths, simpler ways of charging and building on longer term contracts to support investment by operators;

• a national freight coordination team;

• embedding freight into strategic decision making, including Incorporating freight into the new 30-year strategy; and

• setting a rail freight growth target, as was done in Scotland for CP7.

What rail freight growth targets the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland will set is not yet known. We anticipate that we will need to take these into account in our CP7 final determination and in the requirements we set for Network Rail in PR23.

2023 Periodic Review

The Office of Rail and Road has started the process for determining the funding needed for Britain rail network from 2024-2029. The process, known as the 2023 Periodic Review (PR23), sets a five-year settlement that will determine the level of funding the infrastructure owner (Network Rail/Great British Railways) should receive for its operation, maintenance and renewals activities and what, in return, it should be required to deliver from this over five years from April 2024, known as Control Period 7 (CP7).

ORR's process will also provide a framework through which ORR will hold the infrastructure owner to account for delivering these during CP7. The UK government has indicated in the Williams- Shapps Plan for Rail that Great British Railways will be held to account for delivering commitments that Network Rail enters into for CP7. This ensures there is clear accountability for delivery and transparency about whether it is achieving this, and stability for investment during a period of change.

PR23 will respond to the challenges facing the railway, and the planned reforms as the Williams-Shapps Plan is implemented. It will support the delivery of a more integrated railway that delivers improvements for customers, both passengers and freight.

Please see attached documentation for more detail