A bill to facilitate rail service privatisation

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1) Definitions

In this act:

1) “Transport board” is a PTB, RTB or ATO as defined in the Local Transport Act 2014.

2) “DOR” means Directly Operated Railways.

3) “NRO” means National Rail Operations.

4) “OLR” means operator of last resort, as defined in the Rail Delivery Act 2020.

5) “TAC” means a track access contract.

6) “TMD” means a train maintenance depot.

7) “ROSCO” means a rolling stock company.

8) “LCR” means London Continental Railways.

9) “DRS” means Direct Railway Services.

10) “NDA” means Nuclear Decommissioning authority.

2) Repeals

1) B001 - Railways Reform Bill 2014 is hereby repealed.

2) B201.2 - Network Rail Reform Bill is hereby repealed.

3) B635 - Local Transport Bill 2018 is hereby repealed.

4) Section 4 of the Rail Delivery Act 2020 is hereby repealed.

5) Section 7 of the Rail Delivery Act 2020 is hereby repealed.

6) Part 1 of the Transport Funding and Departmental Restructuring Act 2015 is hereby repealed.

7) Part 2 of the Transport Funding and Departmental Restructuring Act 2015 is hereby repealed.

8) Subsections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 of Section 4 in Part 3 of the Transport Funding and Departmental Restructuring Act 2015 is hereby repealed.

9) Subsection 6 (A), (A1) and (A2) of Section 4 in Part 3 Transport Funding and Departmental Restructuring Act 2015 is hereby repealed.

10) Section 1 subsection 3 of the Local Transport Act 2014 is hereby repealed.

11) Section 4 of the British Rail Reform Act 2016 is hereby repealed.

12) Section 1 subsection 4 of the Clean transport Act is hereby repealed.

3) Network Rail

1) Network Rail is to be a company wholly owned by Her Majesty’s Government.

2) The Executive Board of Network Rail shall remain as the body that runs the operations of Network Rail.

3) The Executive Board of Network Rail shall be reconfigured to consist of the Secretary of State, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer.

4) All members of the Executive Board shall be appointed by the Secretary of State.

5) Network Rail shall be divided into regions headed by a regional director.

6) The regions shall be called: The South West, The South Central, The South East, London, The East of England, Wales, The West Midlands, The East Midlands, The North East, The North West, and Scotland.

i. The South West Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

ii. The South Central Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight.

iii. The South East Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of West Sussex, East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent.

iv. The London Region shall contain the metropolitan area defined as Greater London.

v. The East of England’s Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Hertfordshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk.

vi. The Wales Region shall contain the country of Wales.

vii. The West Midlands Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and the metropolitan area of Birmingham.

viii. The East Midlands Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Leicestershire, Rutland, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Huntingdonshire.

ix. The North East Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland.

x. The North West Region shall contain the ceremonial counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Cheshire and the metropolitan area of Greater Manchester.

xi. The Scotland Region shall contain the country of Scotland.

7) The Regional Directors shall be appointed by the Executive Board.

4) National Rail Operations

1) NRO shall be set up to replace National Rail as well as: develop, maintain and manage the operational infrastructure of the railways.

2) NRO shall own and manage the TOPS (Total Operations Processing System) system.

3) NRO shall own and manage the TRUST (Train Running Under System TOPS) system.

4) NRO shall be responsible for facilitating the delay attribution system.

a) NRO shall provide monthly reports to the Department for Transport on delays and performances of all TOCs on all routes, as well as delays and performance affected by Network rail.

5) Office for Rail Regulation

1) The ORR shall set the fares for DOR services.

a) Train operating companies shall have the right to set fares for their services.

2) The ORR shall be responsible for setting performance targets for DOR where it is granted a TAC to be the OLR for a route.

a) The ORR shall also set fair performance targets for TOCs, to aid the Department for Transport in making a judgement to allow the DOR to bid for TACs or not under subsection 1 of Section 2 in the Rail Delivery Act 2020, as amended by section 7 of this act.

3) The OTR shall be the parent board of the ORR, OHR and OTBR.

4) The ORR shall be responsible for approving and monitoring the budgets of DOR (as an OLR set out in Section 6 of this Act) and Network Rail; ensuring they do not go over budget on projects.

5) Subsection 1b of section 5 of the Rail Delivery Act 2020 shall now read:

a) “Maintaining safe and punctual trains, in accordance with regulations set by the Office for Rail regulation”

6) The ORR is to carry out yearly reviews on the following:

a) The delay attribution system provisioned in section 4 subsection 4 of this act.

b) Performance of TOCs on their contracted routes.

c) The performance of NRO.

d) The performance of Network Rail.

6) Railway operation concessions

1. Franchises currently operated as concessions from local authorities or transport boards may continue to operate as they are until the end of the contract.

2. At the end of the concession contract, the routes operated by the franchise must become open access.

a) Any TOC shal be able to bid to Network Rail for a TAC to operate on these routes.

7) Abolition of Directly Operated Railways

1) The 40% stake in the Eurostar that DOR International owns, shall be transferred back to the ownership of Her Majesty’s Treasury.

2) DOR Property shall relinquish ownership of the Historical Railways Estate, and the estate shall be transferred back to the ownership of the Highways Agency, who shall be responsible for the property in this estate.

3) DOR Property shall no longer have ownership of the property portfolio of the former LCR, the ownership shall be absorbed back into LCR.

4) The Department for Transport shall assume ownership of LCR.

5) DOR Freight shall relinquish it’s 50% share in DRS, and the share shall be transferred back to the ownership of the NDA.

6) DOR will no longer be the principal operator of rail services in the UK.

7) DOR shall become a state-sponsored OLR.

8) Subsection 1 of Section 2 in the Rail Delivery Act 2020 shall be replaced with the following:

“The Secretary of State may, by order, allow DOR to bid for TACs if:

a) They believe it is in the public interest or

b) They believe it could lower fares enough to justify the cost of operating the route, or

c) They believe every TOC operating the route is severely underperforming and the OLR could significantly improve on these services.”

9) Subsection 4 is inserted in Section 2 of the Rail Delivery Act 2020 and reads as follows:

“The Secretary of State may, by order, disallow DOR from continuing their services on any given route if:

a) They believe it is in the public interest or

b) They had previously given an order under subsection 1 of this section to allow DOR to operate services, but no longer believe it is necessary or

c) The costs of DOR running services are too great to justify them continuing.

10) The Department for Transport shall have the authority to sell all rolling stock and TMDs owned by DOR.

a) A TOC may only purchase Rolling Stock from DOR if they have been awarded a TAC.

i) Upon loss of a Track Access Contract, a company who has ownership of assets previously owned by Directly Operated Railways will relinquish these by auction to another company with a valid Track Access Contract, or a ROSCO if the ROSCO agrees to lease out rolling stock to TOCs.

b) A ROSCO may only purchase Rolling Stock from DOR if they agree to lease out rolling stock to TOCs.

c) The Secretary of State shall oversee the sales and has the power to make the sales on behalf of the Department for Transport.

d) Any funds made from sales shall be returned to Her Majesty’s Treasury

8) Transition to open access railways

1) DOR may continue operating on a route until all of it’s rolling stock is sold and a TOC has begun operating on the route with a TAC.

9) Amendments to Local transport Act 2014

1) The Local Transport Act 2014 is amended as follows -

2) Section 1 subsection 3 shall now read:

“3) If a TOC’s services lie within the boundaries of a PTB, the TOC must:

a) consult with the PTB on service delivery and long term plans.

b) consult with the transport board over timetable changes within the boundaries of the PTB.”

3) After subsection 5 in section 1, insert:

“6. If a PTB feels that TOCs are severely underperforming they may request the DfT to bid for a TAC for a state sponsored OLR.

4) Section 3 subsection 3 shall read:

“3. If a TOC’s services lie within the boundaries of a RTB, the TOC must:

a) consult with the RTB on service delivery and long term plans.

b) consult with the transport board over timetable changes within the boundaries of the RTB.”

10) Short title, commencement and extent

1) This Act may be cited as the Rail Reform Act 2020

2) This Act comes into force upon Royal Assent.

3) This bill extends to England, Wales and Scotland.

This bill was written by Rt.Hon. ReglarBulgarian MP for North Yorkshire, co-authored by Rt. Hon. Sir BrexitGlory KBE, MP, MSP, AM and endorsed by Rt. Hon ConfessionsGB MP, Secretary of State for Transport; on behalf of the 25th government and co-sponsored by the Liberal Democrats and the Libertarian Party UK.

Amendments:

A01

In section 3(1) for “wholly” substitute “majoritively”

A02

In section 3;

For section (1) substitute—

(1) Network Rail is to be privatised regionally.

&

Omit subsections (2), (3), (4) and (7).

&

In (5) omit “headed by a regional director”

&

After section 3 insert—

“4) Universal Service Obligation & Transparency Requirements For Regional Rail Track Operators

(1) Regional rail track operators means the body corporate established in section 3.

(2) No regional rail track operator may discriminate between DORs.

(3) A regional track operator must be run independently from any DOR.

(4) A regional rail track operator may only consider the, profitability, impact on service from allowing bids for TACs from competing

(5) All TAC bids must be published when they are made to a regional rail track operator.

(6) Where a bid is rejected a regional rail track operator must publish its rationale.”

&

And renumber subsequent sections

Explanatory note

The amendment allows for a privatised rail infrastructure, not just franchises.

As a note the passage of A02 would supersede the passage of A01.

These amendments were submitted by The Baron of Blaevon.

Please vote Content/Not Content/Present on each division. The division will end at 10pm BST on the fifth.