Lord Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2015-01-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why, in the light of the demand for track access exceeding the availability of train paths on the East Coast Main Line, open access operators are paying discounted variable track access charges.

Baroness Kramer

Existing Open Access Operators are charged the same Variable Track Access charges as franchised operators with the exception of the Capacity Charge. This is because implementing the full Control Period 5 (CP5) rates would equate to a real term average increase of 450% in the Capacity Charge from which Open Access Operators have no protection. In light of the Office of Rail Regulation’s statutory duties to promote the use of the railway network, protect the interests of users of railway services and to promote competition in the provision of railway services, they deemed it appropriate to hold Capacity Charge at CP4 rates for both existing services and any new entrant Open Access Operator in line with European law and their statutory duties. Any additional services introduced by existing Open Access Operators will be charged at CP5 rates.