More cash needed for research

The supply chain has been urged to lobby the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) for an increase in NR’s research and development expenditure in Control Period 6 (April 2019-March 2024).

ORR’s draft determination for NR’s CP6 outputs was published on June 12. It recommends a reduction in NR’s requested R&D expenditure from £440 million to just £100m, in favour of funding more work to renew assets.

A consultation will run on the draft determination until August 31, when ORR will then make its final decisions before publishing a final determination in October.

Speaking at the National Rail Convention, Network Rail Group Director of Safety, Technical and Engineering Graham Hopkins (pictured) said: “Our aspiration for CP6 is that funding for R&D as a percentage of revenue becomes business as usual and not something we have to fight for every Control Period.

“The draft determination only gives us a quarter of what we asked for, but it has to be at the right level to do what we need to in CP6, and so we have until September to turn that around.

“We need to start bringing technologies to commercialisation in CP6 such as ETCS Level 3 in order to fulfil our Digital Railway plans. And if we can get R&D right, then the rest of the world will want to use our capabilities.”