Written evidence from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) (WRT 023)

Summary

1.     We welcome the opportunity to provide written evidence to the Transport Select Committee inquiry into winter resilience in transport. Our response specifically looks at resilience on Britain’s mainline rail network, but will also make reference to underground, light railway and tram systems.
 

2.     The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is the combined economic regulator for Britain’s mainline railways and the health and safety regulator for all Britain’s railways. As an independent regulator, we play a pivotal role in ensuring the industry delivers a safe, effective and efficient system for Government and other funders, tax payers and customers - both passengers and freight.
 

3.     Specifically, we regulate and monitor the performance of Network Rail, as stewards of the mainline network. We set and monitor targets that determine obligations and funding for a five year control period - for example, performance targets which measure the percentage of trains arriving on time and the number of services which are cancelled and significantly late (CaSL).[1] All of these are important when considering the resilience of the network to adverse weather and the impact this causes to rail customers. Following previous concerns, in 2012, we improved the provision of information for passengers by introducing a new licence condition to require operators to provide accurate and timely information to help passengers better plan their journeys – especially relevant during times of disruption. We monitor performance against this and can take appropriate enforcement action if required.
 

4.     Our response to this particular inquiry can be summarised as follows:
 

• Work has taken place across the railway industry to understand the impact of winter weather and climate change; and improve the rail network’s resilience to this. This is particularly evident from efforts to learn from previous incidents – for example the snow experienced in the winter of 2010-11.
• Network Rail is expected to identify the current and predicted impacts of climate change and put in place risk control mechanisms to mitigate these. While positive steps have been made, in its “Strategic Business Plan for 2014-2019,”[2] Network Rail has recognised the need to improve the resilience of railway infrastructure to adverse weather. For example improvements to drainage around embankments.
• There is evidence from ORR investigations into Network Rail performance, and particularly its management of assets, where we have identified the need for Network Rail to adapt their plans for both infrastructure and operations to meet the challenges posed by the UK’s changing weather patterns. For example, the investigation into the breach of condition 1 of its licence on the London and south east and long distance sectors.[3]
• We will be publishing our Final Determination on 31 October 2013, which sets Network Rail’s funding and the outputs we expect it to deliver over the next five years from 2014-2019. In our draft determination[4], published in June 2013, we stepped up our pressure on Network Rail to take a more proactive approach to ensure the railway infrastructure is resilient to climate change and extreme weather.
• There are early indications that the rail industry and Network Rail in particular are responding. A plan has been developed for the western route to ensure the infrastructure is more weather resilient and services resume as soon as practicable following the effects of adverse weather. We expect Network Rail to publish plans for all routes by September 2014.

How resilient are the UK’s transport networks (including road, rail and air) to adverse winter weather? How well prepared are the Government, local authorities and transport providers for adverse winter weather? What more should be done to ensure a coordinated response?

5.     On the mainline railway network, where rail freight traffic is up 17% since 2000-01 and passenger numbers are up 45% in the last decade, customers expect and rely on the network to deliver for them all year round. Rail infrastructure is inherently vulnerable to weather – particularly adverse winter weather. Without necessary work to ensure resilience, it is susceptible to failures causing delays and disruption. This not only is frustrating for passengers, but delays to freight trains during adverse cold weather affect the supply of coal to Britain’s power stations. Network Rail is working to gain more understanding of how to improve its ability to manage its assets and undertake required targeted maintenance, but there is still more work to be done to ensure rail performance is not adversely affected. There have been recent positive signs of improvement: the cross-industry approach to the issue and opportunity to design-in ‘research-based’ solutions for new infrastructure is particularly welcomed.
 

6.     As we have seen, UK weather patterns are changing. Network Rail needs to adapt their plans for both infrastructure and operations to meet the challenge posed by this on the railway – particularly taking forward learning from previous incidents. To increase resilience of rail assets to adverse weather such as extremes of temperature, rainfall and wind, adequate drainage and maintenance is required. Without this maintenance the infrastructure is subject to failures. During 2012 there was an increase in the number and severity of earthwork failures (embankments and slopes which slip during bad weather), which were mostly associated with heavy rainfall. Table 1 shows the close correlation between rainfall and earthwork failures.
 

Table 1 Close correlation between high rainfall and landslips in 2010-13[5]

7.     Infrastructure failures increase potential safety risks and put a heavier reliance on proactive inspection and maintenance to identify and control those risks. For example, in 2012 ORR served an enforcement notice in Scotland [6] which required Network Rail to carry out risk assessment on earthwork failures and implement control measures such as speed restrictions on parts of a route to reduce the risk of train derailment due to failed earthworks. While reactive control measures can help manage the overall safety risk, they are only an interim measure before more proactive and sustainable resilience and climate change solutions are required.

8.     ORR’s scrutiny suggests that Network Rail should identify locations which are particularly vulnerable to flooding and, rather than replacing assets ‘like for like’, conventional ballast which is easily washed away could be replaced with concrete slabs to support the track and electrical cabinets could be raised above ground level. This opportunity to “design-in” solutions would increase resilience and recovery times following an incident.

9.     The precursor indicator model (PIM),[7] developed by the industry’s Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), shows that following improvements between 2006-09, risk reduction levelled-off between 2009 and 2011; and increased 34% between December 2011 and December 2012 because of weather-caused infrastructure failure. However, we have seen improvement in overall precursor risk reduction trend more recently: it reduced 4% since the start of 2013-14.

10. Winter and adverse weather-caused risks also pose similar infrastructure and rolling stock-related risks to Britain’s tram, light rail and underground networks. As these services are often urban in nature they are less susceptible to weather and temperature-caused risks, but staff not being able to get to work, or being in the wrong place to do their jobs, remains a common risk. However, running such services, particularly trams, is dependent on road surfaces being cleared of snow and ice.

11. In its Strategic Business Plan for 2014-2019[8] and response to the Draft determination,[9] Network Rail recognised the need to improve the resilience of the rail infrastructure systems to weather, to increase reliability and mitigate the risks associated with climate change. It is seeking to develop “considered evidence-based adaptation strategies” for the UK rail infrastructure focused on key questions:
 

• What is the baseline weather across UK regions, both “normal” conditions and “extreme” weather conditions? How do we expect this to change?
• How does the weather impact the reliability of Network Rail’s assets?
• What is the priority investment required to address extreme weather conditions that will improve future rail performance during these extremes?
   

Network Rail also has a programme of work to make their assets more resilient to climate change and extreme weather – for example targeted work with local water management groups to improve the management of drainage and earthworks.
 

12. In response to the Climate Change Act 2008, Network Rail, in conjunction with RSSB has undertaken research to understand and mitigate against likely future climate change scenarios. They have established the Weather Resilience & Climate Change Steering Group (WRCCSG) to develop and deliver a strategy to manage the risk of weather and climate change impacts on rail performance, in order to achieve the vision of a ‘weather-ready railway’.
 

13. This cross-industry approach is welcomed and ORR would like to see more widespread co-operation and collaboration between Network Rail and other railway operators to ensure targeted investment is made to make assets more resilient to severe weather. To encourage this, we are actively working with industry through groups including the Sustainable Development Steering Group (SDSG), Rail Delivery Group (RDG) and National Task Force (NTF).
 

14. With continued investment by Government in the rail industry, there is the opportunity to “design-in” improved resilience to deal with current and future weather extremes. The industry has taken advantage of a range of evidence from European partner railways where infrastructure has been exposed to extreme heat, cold, wind and water. This has allowed the development of a detailed environmental specification for the European Rail Traffic Management System Programme. It has also enabled climate resilience to be addressed in the specification for the forthcoming electrification of the western route.
 

15. We have stepped up our monitoring of Network Rail to ensure that it takes a more proactive approach to weather resilience and the adverse effect this has on performance and the delays and disruption incurred by passengers and freight customers. Our Final Determination for 2014-2019 proposes a number of national level targets. These were set out in our Draft Determination[10] and include monitoring Network Rail’s overall capability and speed of progress in managing its assets, the quality of the asset data it collects, the success of internal asset management programmes and the condition, performance and failure of each asset type.
 

16. There is further evidence that the industry and Network Rail in particular are responding to the issues posed by severe weather. Network Rail has developed a route-level plan for the western route, and we expect Network Rail to publish route-level resilience and recovery plans by September 2014 for all routes. Recovery plans are essential, but rely on staff being able to travel to work in order to implement them. Some operators put up key staff in local hotels to reduce such risk however improved resilience across the whole transport system would help to mitigate this further. We will monitor closely the industry’s progress against delivering these, but we are aware that only real-life events can stress-test the plans.
 

What lessons have been learned since the severe weather experienced in the winter of 2009-10? What practical changes have been made to ensure the UK is now better equipped to deal with severe weather?

17. While rail customers suffered less disruption than road travellers during the winter of 2010-11, significant lessons have been learnt right across the railway industry. During this period – in particular during the heavy snow – the rail industry adopted a pragmatic “get people home” approach, operating emergency timetables rather than trying to meet regulatory performance targets. There has been considerable work across the rail industry to define practical measures that could be implemented both by Network Rail as the infrastructure operator and the train operating companies (TOCs) to improve railway future resilience.
 

18. The snow in winter 2010-11 was particularly severe in Scotland. Some delays were caused by frozen points and snowdrifts, but one of the most significant problems was a build-up of compacted ice on the underside of trains. This could take six hours to defrost before basic safety checks and engineering work could take place. More than seventy trains needed to be withdrawn from service after carriages were damaged by ice in Scotland alone.
 

19. Following the events of 2010, First ScotRail visited Helsinki, Finland, where heated power showers are routinely used to remove compacted snow and ice from carriages during the winter. In 2011, they trialed this approach using heated showers in poly-tunnels to enable trains to be defrosted more quickly. Following the success of this, they have been incorporated into ScotRail’s depots on a permanent basis and a three-carriage diesel train can now be defrosted in less than two hours.
 

20. Rail services in south London, which use a third-rail power supply system, were also affected during the severe snow of 2010-11. Since 2010 an extensive winter resilience programme has been adopted, including the design and installation of conductor rail heating and the development of dedicated anti-snow and ice-treatment trains. Some of Southeastern’s class 375 trains have also been fitted with de-icing fluid tanks, which can apply de-icing fluid to the rails when required in service.
 

21. The industry has not just focused on mitigating the effects of the snow seen in 2010 but has also looked at how to better deal with the disruption to train services from other extreme weather. Following the flooding in November and December 2012 in south west England and Wales, Network Rail carried out a review of infrastructure resilience and the root-causes of failure and disruption on the western route. From this work, thirty seven sites were identified as contributing to 96% of the delays and specifically nine locations were identified for targeted work to improve resilience. This work is scheduled to take place between 2013 and 2016.
 

22. Network Rail has recently retendered its contract for the maintenance and supply of its specialised autumn and winter fleet of rail vehicles designed to keep the railway open during severe weather. Network Rail has carried out site visits to each depot to assess the current maintenance facilities to establish their suitability for the operation of autumn and winter services. Each depot now has a full summary of works. ORR’s safety inspectors have also inspected train operators management systems to better manage train wheels slipping on rails following leaf-fall in the autumn and when dew forms on the railhead.
 

23. The provision of information to passengers during adverse weather has significantly improved since winter 2010. From March 2012 ORR introduced a new operator licence condition to set out responsibilities and ensure that passengers had access to up to date reliable information to help plan and make their journeys - particularly during severe disruption[11]. In our associated regulatory statement[12] we set out how we expected the industry to comply with the code of practice on the provision of information to passengers during disruption.[13] This sets the following requirements:
 

• Within 10 minutes of an incident being notified to a control office, a message should be sent to customer-facing staff.
• If this incident results in major disruption, then subsequent messages should be updated at least every 20-minutes.
• Information for passengers should be well-structured, concise and jargon-free.
• Messages should contain information on the problem, its impact and advise passengers accordingly so that they can make informed travel choices.
   

24. The industry has responded positively. As detailed in our December 2012 report into passenger information,[14] many station staff now have smart phones with access to real-time data, while ticket office staff have better access to up to date information. While this still requires stress-testing in a live situation, the level and quality of information for passengers at stations, online and through social media has and continues to improve across the industry. The industry update their plans annually and to take into account developments in technology, changes to passenger needs and lessons learnt in the light of experience. ORR engages with industry and monitors performance to ensure that all parties fulfil their obligations and in 2014 we intend to review the current code to identify whether further improvements are required. In addition, the £100m fund for station improvements in 2014-19 could be used to improve passenger information systems, however this would need to be considered against competing uses for the fund and decided under the governance procedures.
 

25. During times of severe weather, passengers often have to make sophisticated travel decisions, taking into consideration the full range of travel modes available to them – for example, rail, road, bus, car or working from home. While the availability and quality of rail information has improved, the passenger experience, it could be further improved by providing easier access to local and regional cross-modal transport information. This would enable customers to comprehensively plan their journey with the confidence that they have information about all of the travel options open to them. The Department for Transport has set out its view on the value of cross-modal information in their recent strategy; “Door to Door – a strategy for improving sustainable transport.”[15] We believe that access to cross-modal transport information is particularly important in times of service disruption and are actively encouraging the industry to continue to make data available to third-party data developers who could develop software applications to provide this functionality to the travelling public.
 

26. ORR places significant weight on ensuring that the mainline railway delivers for all of its customers and funders; and hopefully the information provided will be useful in informing your inquiry.

If clarification of any of the points made above is required, or we can be of further assistance to the inquiry, please do not hesitate to contact me.

October 2013