Increasing passenger rail capacity

Increasing passenger rail capacity PDF Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102965230
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
This report points out that the Department for Transport's latest plans for increasing rail capacity would not deliver as much extra capacity as originally specified, although the taxpayer would have provided nearly as much financial support (£1.2 billion over the period 2009-14) to train companies as originally envisaged. Value for money is also at risk because costs, particularly of rail carriages, have risen at the same time as the recession has reduced the Department's projections of demand. Against this background, the Department has reviewed each individual scheme before entering into contract to ensure that it still offers value for money. By March 2010, the Department had secured use of 526 extra carriages, with a further 106 ordered and due to be ready for operation by 2012. Capacity is now expected for 99,000 extra passengers into London in the morning peak (between 07:00 and 09:59), 15 per cent fewer than originally envisaged, and 25,500 extra passengers into other English cities, 33 per cent fewer. Passenger Transport Executives in the North of England - local government bodies responsible for the public transport in major cities - feel that their expectations for increased capacity in their area have not been met. In 2007 the DfT published a thirty-year strategy which set aside £9 billion for capacity increases. Within this, £7 billion was allocated to Network Rail. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) scrutinised Network Rail's plans to but the level of cost detail available to ORR restricts its ability to judge or evaluate.

Increasing passenger rail capacity

Increasing passenger rail capacity PDF Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102965230
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
This report points out that the Department for Transport's latest plans for increasing rail capacity would not deliver as much extra capacity as originally specified, although the taxpayer would have provided nearly as much financial support (£1.2 billion over the period 2009-14) to train companies as originally envisaged. Value for money is also at risk because costs, particularly of rail carriages, have risen at the same time as the recession has reduced the Department's projections of demand. Against this background, the Department has reviewed each individual scheme before entering into contract to ensure that it still offers value for money. By March 2010, the Department had secured use of 526 extra carriages, with a further 106 ordered and due to be ready for operation by 2012. Capacity is now expected for 99,000 extra passengers into London in the morning peak (between 07:00 and 09:59), 15 per cent fewer than originally envisaged, and 25,500 extra passengers into other English cities, 33 per cent fewer. Passenger Transport Executives in the North of England - local government bodies responsible for the public transport in major cities - feel that their expectations for increased capacity in their area have not been met. In 2007 the DfT published a thirty-year strategy which set aside £9 billion for capacity increases. Within this, £7 billion was allocated to Network Rail. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) scrutinised Network Rail's plans to but the level of cost detail available to ORR restricts its ability to judge or evaluate.

Increasing passenger rail capacity

Increasing passenger rail capacity PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215555205
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
The Department for Transport is eighteen months into a five-year, £9 billion investment programme to improve rail travel, in particular by increasing the number of passenger places on trains by March 2014. The Department's latest plans show that all the relevant targets will be missed. There will be 15 per cent fewer extra places delivered in London in the morning peak and 33 per cent fewer into other major cities, compared to the numbers the Department stated would be needed just to hold overcrowding at current levels. The Committee is concerned that the failure to meet the targets set will lead to substantial increases in already unacceptable overcrowding levels by 2014 and beyond. Rising demand for rail travel combined with serious cuts in public expenditure make it imperative that the rail industry becomes more efficient, otherwise the passenger will suffer. The Department says that levels of crowding, and ticket prices, depend on policy decisions about the level of government subsidy, but this ignores the scope for efficiency savings to release resources for front line services. The industry's ability to provide a good quality rail service, including acceptable levels of crowding, depends crucially on the efficiency of all players in the rail industry, and of Network Rail in particular. Rail infrastructure costs more in Great Britain than in other countries, and there is a large potential for Network Rail to improve its efficiency. The Office of Rail Regulation should be challenging Network Rail's efficiency at a detailed level.

Expanding Passenger Rail Service

Expanding Passenger Rail Service PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description


Guidebook for Implementing Passenger Rail Service on Shared Passenger and Freight Corridors

Guidebook for Implementing Passenger Rail Service on Shared Passenger and Freight Corridors PDF Author: Alan J. Bing
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISBN: 0309154707
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
This Guidebook will aid states in developing public-private partnerships with private freight railroads to permit operation of passenger services over shared-use rail corridors. The Guidebook should encourage the broad acceptance of improved principles, processes, and methods to support agreements on access, allocation of operation and maintenance costs, capacity allocation, operational issues, future responsibilities for infrastructure improvements, and other fundamental issues that will affect the ultimate success of shared-use passenger and freight agreements between public and private railroad stakeholders.

Divided Highways

Divided Highways PDF Author: Tom Lewis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Relates the history of the conception and building of the Interstate Highway System and its affect on the American lifestyle.

Waiting on a Train

Waiting on a Train PDF Author: James McCommons
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603582592
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.

Priorities for investment in the railways

Priorities for investment in the railways PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215543974
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Incorporating HC 1056, session 2008-09

Understanding the Cost Drivers of Passenger Rail

Understanding the Cost Drivers of Passenger Rail PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Federal aid to transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description


Regulating Network Rail's efficiency

Regulating Network Rail's efficiency PDF Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102969658
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Limitations in Network Rail's information on its own costs are hampering the ability of the Office of Rail Regulation (the Regulator) to judge the genuineness of the efficiency savings reported by Network Rail. This report acknowledges that the Regulator has significantly developed the methods it uses to judge efficiency. Its targets have demanded substantial improvements from Network Rail. Network Rail has made efficiency savings of 27 per cent in the five years to 2008-09, equivalent to £1.8 billion in that final year. This was below the Regulator's target of 31 per cent, although this was still an achievement when compared to savings in other regulated industries. The Regulator has determined that substantial scope remains for Network Rail to improve its efficiency, estimating that maintenance and renewal activities were 34 per cent to 40 per cent less efficient than the most efficient European rail infrastructure managers in 2008. The Regulator estimates that Network Rail can achieve further efficiency savings of 21 per cent in the five years to March 2014 - equivalent to spending £940 million less in 2013-14 than the forecast for that year without efficiency gains. However, there are continuing limitations in the robustness and coverage of Network Rail's unit cost information. These need to be addressed promptly to improve confidence that future efficiency targets accurately reflect Network Rail's potential for sustainable savings, as the efficiency gap narrows, and that reported savings correctly reflect efficiency gains actually achieved.

Cafcass's response to increased demand for its services

Cafcass's response to increased demand for its services PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215555243
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Following the publicity around the Baby Peter tragedy in 2008, Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) experienced a significant and sustained increase in demand for its services, receiving around 34 per cent more care cases in 2009-10 than the previous year. This led to chaos across the family justice system, and exposed Cafcass as an organisation that was not fit for purpose in dealing with the increased number of cases. Although judges in the family court are satisfied with the quality of the advice and reports that Cafcass's family court advisers provide, Cafcass has failed to get to grips with fundamental weaknesses in its culture, management and performance. Ofsted inspections reported an inadequate service. Allocation of cases to courts is slow, data held is inaccurate, sickness absence is unacceptably high and staff morale is low. Cafcass was only able to respond to the increase in demand through the use of temporary measures (duty allocations) which allowed it to do less work or to delay work on cases. Transitional arrangements, pending the outcome of the Family Justice Review, aim to continue reducing delays in allocating cases, while minimising the use of duty allocations. The Committee does not share the Department's confidence that the substantial organisational problems will be overcome by 2011. Strong leadership, renewed energy and focused committed are needed to sort this situation out if Cafcass is to become the world-class organisation it aspires to be.