Periodic Review - Pr18

The PR18 project is a major piece of work for us to try and improve how Network Rail operates. So Network Rail is a monopoly business and without our regulation it wouldn't be as efficient, it wouldn't deliver as much for its passengers, freight customers and ultimately for taxpayers as well. It sets an important baseline for how we expect the business to perform over the next 5 years. That allows us to monitor its performance, and encourages the company to improve what it delivers for passengers and for freight. The main role for the next review is to make sure that can happen. So that really implies for us is that we need to make sure the next review is sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of those diverse funders. At one level to the extent that Network Rail improves and that the review helps them get more efficient that benefit is shared all stakeholders. It means that taxpayer funding can be lower than it otherwise would be and it supports better value for passengers and also freight users. I guess more specifically it also means that the incentives for Network Rail to improve performance and to find better ways of using the network offer the prospect of better reliability more on-time performance and potentially even more services that passengers want. So, PR18 is a major project for ORR and it draws upon the skills that we have available across the office. So that means it draws upon the economists that we have, the financial analysts, the engineers and the safety experts and we bring all those skills together to deliver this review.