A reduction in the scope of infrastructure renewals on the train network poses risks to future safety and reliability, the UK’s rail regulator has said.
The government had previously allocated £44bn to operations, maintenance and infrastructure renewals on the rail network to cover the five-year period from 2024 to 2029.
According to an assessment from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), high inflation has seen effectively £2bn in buying power removed from this total. The budget for operations and maintenance needs to remain static, which meant the inflationary pressures have driven an effective cut in infrastructure renewals to 83% of the original plan in England and Wales.
This has led Network Rail to reduce the number of assets, such as track, tunnels and bridges, that it intends to renew which could potentially have negative impacts further down the line, the ORR said.
Nevertheless, the assessment also found real progress on efficiency across the network and fewer passenger and freight...