In the News… ORR Publishes Update Paper for Its Signalling Market Study The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) launched its market study into the supply of signalling systems in Great Britain in November 2020. The ORR’s interest in this part of the rail sector comes from the fact that signalling makes up more than 10 percent of Network Rail’s total cost base and that it is a major area of growth, with 65 percent of external signalling assets projected to expire within the next 15 years. In its update paper, the ORR said it was concerned about the lack of competition in the British signalling market, with Alstom and Siemens alone taking a projected 90% of Network Rail’s signalling spend (2019–2024). Furthermore, 97% of post-1990 installed base of interlockings has been installed by Siemens, Alstom or one of their predecessor companies. It was because of this that the ORR argued
against a Siemens/Alstom merger to the European Commission. The ORR has consistently found that competition lowers prices for Network Rail, suggesting “that more competition and more viable players for both frameworks and individual tenders could help Network Rail drive better value”. The ORR will publish its final report on 11 November 2021.
Government Announces Sweeping Rail Reforms The UK government has announced reforms to the railways in Britain, starting with the establishment of a new public body called Great British Railways. The reforms also include an end to the franchise system, instead putting train operating companies on to Passenger Service Contracts – concession-based contracts where they would receive a fee for running services, while the government would take the money
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and hold the risk from ticket sales – ticketing is also set to become much simpler as part of this overhaul.
Hitachi Class 800s and 385s Found to Have Cracks After cracks were found in some Hitachi Class 800 trains, all of the country’s Class 800 trains as well as ScotRail’s Hitachi-built Class 385s were taken out of service as a precaution. Hitachi Rail, train operators and the government then put a Service Recovery Plan in place to get the trains back into service following widespread disruption. The cracks were found in the trains’ lifting points, which are used to lift the trains when in a maintenance depot. Ian Prosser, Chief Inspector of Railways at the ORR and speaker at Rail Live 2021, said: “We’ve engaged with Hitachi and the train companies to oversee
