Strategic planning should come from System Operator, says Carne
Network Rail’s System Operator function is best-placed to coordinate long-term strategic planning for Britain’s rail network, Network Rail’s Chief Executive Mark Carne has announced.
Addressing the RIA annual conference on October 20, he said that although not currently ready to fulfil this new role, the process had begun to reposition it with the support of industry.
NR’s System Operator was created in 2015 to ensure that its devolved route businesses were supported by a national framework to coordinate network-wide activities such as capacity management and timetabling. Under its new remit, it would be joined by leading industry figures and would be independently regulated to limit political interference in the type of recommendations and proposals it made to Government.
Carne said: “I agree with Andy McDonald on the need for longterm strategic planning on how the railways are improved in future, but I think this is best done by the people who run our railways, including train operators, rolling stock owners, manufacturers, suppliers and Network Rail. They should be responsible for putting together a long-term national plan.
“The guiding mind should be coordinated by the System Operator, which may sit within NR but will have independent governance and regulation from 2019. It will coordinate industrybased studies on how best to enhance performance, and conduct analysis to present best options to MPs and third-party funders who can then choose to buy them.
“We’re setting it up to be an independently-chaired supervisory board and I want it to run in shadow mode for the final year of Control Period 5. It is vitally important that all elements of the industry are involved in this.
“It has support from the Rail Delivery Group but the devil is in the detail, which is why I think running it in shadow mode first is the right way to go.”