Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Unused Rail Capacity

Thursday 8 February 2024 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Office of Rail and Road is working with Network Rail and the Department for Transport to identify unused rail capacity.
  • The Office of Rail and Road wrote to operators to clarify the release of unused access rights.
  • The Department for Transport has identified hundreds of unused access rights.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 John Penrose Con
Transport
Context

The question concerns the identification of unused rail network capacity to support open-access services.

Question

Whether the Office of Rail Regulation has identified unused rail network capacity for open-access services.

Answer from Huw Merriman

The Office of Rail and Road has been working with Network Rail and the Department for Transport to identify unused access rights. That work will support the release of under-used capacity on the rail network, which may then be used by potential operators in the development of open-access proposals.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide specific timelines or details about progress and plans for releasing unused capacity.

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Q2 John Penrose Con
Transport
Context

The MP is concerned that the progress of identifying unused rail network capacity has been slow and wants to see faster action.

Question

It is great to hear that there is work under way, but I notice that my hon. Friend did not say how far it had got. I know that he understands that this is a huge opportunity to improve our over-subsidised, post-pandemic railways, so that passengers can get a better deal, but if we do not move faster it will slip through our fingers.

Answer from Huw Merriman

Since we met in November with the team, which included my hon. Friend, to see what further we could do, we have written to operators to clarify that unused access rights should be released. With regard to Department for Transport operators, we have hundreds of unused access rights that we have identified for release. We also talked about speeding up the entire decision-making process, and the ORR and Network Rail now have a draft service level agreement to do that.

Answered
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