Press release 2005.8 - immediate release Saturday 9 April 2005

RFG welcomes Railways Act 2005 

The Railways Bill finally received Royal Assent on Thursday 7th April as Parliament rose before the General Election. 

For rail freight, there was one success and one loss.  The success was that Government accepted the industry view that, if train operators and customers were prevented from operating in accordance with their access contracts because Government had not given Network Rail enough money to maintain the infrastructure to meet these contractual requirements, then compensation could be payable. 

The rail freight industry welcomed this, along with a number of ministerial and regulatory assurances on this issue, whilst recognising that is was not in their interested to see Government give Directions to the Office of Rail Regulation in this regard, since it would compromise the ORR’s independence.

The failure was that there is no longer a Duty on Government to promote the use of the railway for the carriage of passengers and goods, words for which RFG campaigned successfully to be included in the 1993 Railways Act, and which have been quoted on many occasions since then to positive effect.  Neither is there any longer any obligation on Government to produce strategies, one of the reasons for the creation of the Strategic Rail Authority four years ago.

Government argued that it does not need to be required by law to produce strategies as it does so anyway; that is part of its function although, in the Third Reading in the Lords, Government minister Lord Davies of Oldham said that these strategies would effectively be contained in the High Level Output Statements made by Government as its input to the regular Access Charges Review. 

RFG Chairman Tony Berkeley said ‘the rail freight industry will welcome the Government’s agreement to the compensation clause.  Even though it is very unlikely to be used, its provision on the face of the Bill will give comfort to those wishing to invest in the industry. 

‘We had some robust and lively debates across all parties in the Lords on this Bill and, although we did not achieve everything we wanted, a number of ministerial assurances were very useful and the Bill itself was improved. 

‘Now comes the task of implementing it, and RFG will continue to work constructively with the Department for Transport in this regard.’ 

Further information: 

RFG Chairman Tony Berkeley 07710 431 542

RFG Development Executive David Leighton 07711 515 389

Notes to editors:

A longer description of the last stages on the Bill is on www.rfg.org.uk, including the compensation clauses as agreed.  

Tony Berkeley
Chairman, Rail Freight Group
17 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9BU
Tel 020 7233 3177, fax 020 7233 3178
www.rfg.org.uk
 
Mobile 07710 431 542, tony@rfg.org.uk