NR does well on safety - but performance is a concern
THE Office of Rail and Road (ORR) says Network Rail (NR) has provided “good leadership” on safety - but overspends on renewals and enhancements are putting pressure on its borrowing facility with the Government.
The analysis is contained in the ORR’s latest Network Rail Monitor covering October 18 to March 31 for England and Wales (Scotland is covered in a separate publication - see pages 10-11). It shows that in 2015-16 there were no industry-caused workforce or passenger deaths on NR infrastructure.
“Network Rail should also take credit for the leadership it has shown during the year in pushing forward the first industry-wide health and safety strategy, launched in April 2016,” says the ORR.
NR met its 2015-16 year-end targets for reduction in train accident risk and workforce lost time injuries. However, other safety initiatives such as Business Critical Rules and Planning and Delivering Safe Work have not gained the traction needed, the ORR concludes.
It adds that NR “does not yet have a consistently reliable and predictable safety management system, calling into question the sustainability of its improved recent safety performance”.
Risks associated with earthworks are said to have increased compared with 2014-15, and management of risk of track geometry defects is reckoned to be “more dependent than it should be on the knowledge competence and expertise of individual staff”.
On performance, although the ORR acknowledges that NR began Control Period 5 at a lower level of performance than anticipated, and that it has delivered most of the milestones in its improvement plan, “performance has not returned to targeted levels”. It says that while some issues such as traincrew and fleet delays are outside its direct control, NR has acknowledged that performance has not met the expectations of the industry.
The Public Performance Measure Moving Annual Average in England and Wales was 88.9% at the end of 2015-16 (0.7 percentage points
below target), while the figure for Cancellations and Significant Lateness was 3.1% (0.2 percentage points worse than target). The ORR acknowledges that it is very difficult to give a definitive answer on the impact on performance of major projects such as Thameslink, but says it is “yet to see convincing analysis” to calculate the impact of passenger growth on performance.
NR has performed well in terms of asset reliability, and is well above target with all areas improving except for earthworks and telecoms. But even though NR has deferred £677 million of capital spending into future years, it still spent £386m more than budgeted on renewals - 13% more than budgeted.
NR plans to defer some future renewals work to Control Periods 6 and 7 (2019-24 and 202429), which it believes will have a “limited long run impact” on sustainability. However, the ORR argues that in the short term deferrals will increase the whole life cost of the railway due to additional maintenance that may be required as a result. It also suggests there is a risk of asset performance deteriorating.
In terms of network enhancements, the ORR says that its revised project dates following the Hendy Review in March 2016 are more achievable.
On the Great Western Main Line (one of the most challenging of NR’s projects), the ORR says NR is achieving better productivity rates, but that a key test of its ability to deliver to the revised dates will be the commissioning of the first electrified section of the route in September 2016.