After two missed deadlines, the Scottish Government finally published its High Level Output Specification (HLOS) and Statement of Funds Available (SoFA) for Scotland’s Railway infrastructure for Control Period 7 (CP7, April 2024-March 2029) on February 3.
The outcome is for a ‘steady state’ railway, with improvements when renewals are carried out.
They were originally due to be delivered by December 1, but the Office of Rail and Road (ORR)granted Scottish ministers a deadline extension to January 27. This was also missed.
A crucial part of ensuring that the industry is secure, the document sets out the Scottish Government’s plans for how much money it is making available (SoFA) and what it expects the railway to deliver (HLOS). The ORR will then determine if these targets are realistic.
Scotland’s SoFA commits to £4.2 billion of spend throughout CP7 on operations, maintenance and renewals of rail infrastructure. On a like-for-like basis, the funding allocated for CP7 is broadly in line with the previous five year-period (CP6).
In terms of outputs (HLOS), ministers “require that the outputs of the network will be maintained” to enable ScotRail to meet a Public Performance Measure (PPM) target of 92.5% for every year of CP7, saying this target “is considered pragmatic and appropriate”.
To read the full story, see RAIL 977
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