DIRECTIONS AND GUIDANCE to the Strategic Rail Authority ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STRATEGIC RAIL AUTHORITY 1. The Strategic Rail Authority (“the Authority”) has been established under section 201(1) of the Transport Act 2000 (“the Act”) as a body corporate. PURPOSES OF THE STRATEGIC RAIL AUTHORITY 2.1. The Authority is to provide leadership for the rail industry and ensure that the industry works co-operatively towards common goals. This objective should underpin the whole range of the Authority’s activities. The Authority will set priorities for the successful operation and development of the railway. It will work with other industry parties to secure continuing private investment in the railway, and to deploy public funding to best effect. To this end, the Authority has been given a wide range of statutory powers and duties. 2.2. Section 205 of the Act sets out the Authority’s purposes as: • to promote the use of the railway network for the carriage of passengers and goods; • to secure the development of the railway network; and • to contribute to the development of an integrated system of transport for passengers and goods. 2.3. Section 207 of the Act requires the Authority to exercise its functions with a view to furthering its purposes and it must do so in accordance with any strategies that it has formulated with respect to them. In so doing the Authority must act in the way best calculated: • to protect the interests of users of railway services; • to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development; 1 • to promote efficiency and economy on the part of persons providing railway services; • to promote measures designed to facilitate passenger journeys involving more than one operator (including, in particular, arrangements for the issue and use of through tickets); • to impose on operators of railway services the minimum restrictions consistent with the performance of its functions; and • to enable providers of rail services to plan their businesses with a reasonable degree of assurance. 2.4. In exercising its functions in such ways the Authority must also: (a) have regard to • the need to protect all persons from dangers arising from the operation of railways (including, in particular, by taking into account any advice given by the Health and Safety Executive); • the interests of persons who are disabled; and • the effect on the environment of activities connected with the provision of railway services. (b) secure that any grants or other payments or loans made by the Authority and any guarantees or investments in bodies corporate given or made by it are such that it reasonably considers will further its purposes (in accordance with any strategies which it has formulated) economically and efficiently. STATUTORY BACKGROUND TO DIRECTIONS AND GUIDANCE 3.1. Sections 206(3) and 207(5) of the Act enable the Secretary of State to give directions and guidance to the Authority in relation to its strategies and as to the manner in which it is to exercise its functions in order to comply with subsections (1) to (3) of Section 207 of the Act. He may also give the Authority directions not to exercise any of its functions in a particular manner (or not to do so without consulting or obtaining his consent). 2 3.2. This document and the attached annexes set out the Secretary of State’s directions (which are in italics) and guidance to the Authority. The directions include (at Annex A) a set of objectives which the Authority is required to deliver. 3.3. Section 209 of the Act requires the Secretary of State to publish these directions and guidance in such manner as he considers appropriate and he will be making this document publicly available on DfT’s corporate web site. The Authority is, additionally, directed to make these directions and guidance, and any other directions and guidance which the Secretary of State may give, publicly available on its web site. 3.4. Section 208 of the Act enables Scottish Ministers to give directions and guidance to the Authority in relation, broadly, to franchised passenger services operating in Scotland and franchised cross-border sleeper services, and advice in relation to other franchised cross-border services. Any such directions and guidance will be published separately by the Scottish Executive. 3.5. Section 196 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (as amended by the Act) enables the Greater London Authority (or the Mayor of London acting on its behalf) to give directions and guidance to the Authority in relation to the provision of railway services in Greater London. RAIL REGULATION IN GREAT BRITAIN 4.1. The Authority, the Rail Regulator, and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) are the three pillars of railway regulation in Great Britain. The Secretary of State looks to these three regulators to work together to ensure that the railways are run safely in the public interest, through effective and accountable regulation. 4.2. The Authority is the strategic, planning, and co-ordinating body for the rail industry and the guardian of the interests of rail passengers. It acts as purchaser of train services and railway infrastructure on behalf of the Secretary of State. The Authority should provide a clear strategic direction for rail transport in Britain; 3 promote rail passenger and freight transport; and encourage private investment in the rail industry. It should deliver the Secretary of State’s objectives through partnerships with key organisations in the industry. Through the franchising process and by exercise of its powers under the Act (in particular, section 211), and having regard to the likely availability of resources, it should invest in the improvement and enhancement of rail services. 4.3. The Rail Regulator’s functions and duties are set out in the Railways Act 1993, as amended by the Transport Act 2000, in the Competition Act 1998 and, in relation to international regulation, in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 and the Railways Regulations 1998. Against this statutory framework, the Rail Regulator’s role may be characterised as acting as the independent economic regulator of the railway in the public interest. 4.4. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) is the single, independent safety regulator for railways in Great Britain. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the HSC’s operational arm. Under Section 207(3)(a) of the Act, the Authority has a duty to take into account the need to protect all persons from dangers arising from the operation of the railways, taking into account, in particular, any advice given to the Authority by the HSE. In carrying out its functions the Authority should ensure that the HSE is fully consulted whenever railway safety may be at issue, and it should be guided by the advice of HSC/HSE on all heath and safety issues. THE STRATEGIC APPROACH Background 5.1. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Britain’s railways experienced a slow decline. In particular, they were starved of investment at a time when great advances were being made in other transport modes and in communications. This was the background to the privatisation of the railway by the previous Government, for which provision was made in the Railways Act 1993. 4 5.2. Privatisation opened the way for new private investment in the railway, and encouraged train operators (in particular) to adopt a more challenging, customer- focused approach to management than had sometimes characterised their predecessors. 5.3. But in many respects privatisation was seriously flawed. The original blueprint for privatisation did not assume any significant growth, certainly not on the scale that the railway experienced in the late 1990s or has the potential to achieve over the next ten years. That difficulty has been compounded by the fragmentation of the industry into a large number of separate businesses (including train operators and rolling stock companies, Railtrack and its contractors) which each have distinct commercial interests to protect. The Government’s Objectives 5.4. Against this background the Government has developed its own objectives for the railway as part of its integrated transport policy. The Government’s priorities for transport are reduced congestion, better integration, and a wider choice of quicker, safer, more reliable options for travellers and other transport users. The Integrated Transport White Paper1 set out the Government’s transport policy; the 10 Year Plan2 sets out how that policy will be delivered. 5.5. A key element of the Plan is to realise the potential for growth which now exists in the railway industry. The Government’s key targets for the railway are set out in Annex 2 to the 10 Year Plan, and include the following: • to increase rail use in Great Britain (measured in passenger kilometres) from 2000 levels by 50% by 2010, with investment in infrastructure and capacity, while at the same time securing improvements in punctuality, reliability and safety; • to reduce overcrowding in London to meet SRA standards by 2010; 1 A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone (Cm 3950), published in July 1998 2 Transport 2010 – The 10 Year Plan, published in July 2000 by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. 5 • a significant increase in rail freight’s share of the freight market by 2010. The Government believes it ought to be possible to increase market share resulting in an increase of up to 80% in rail freight by 2010. 5.6. Other relevant targets set out in the 10 Year Plan, to which the railway will contribute, include: • to reduce road congestion on the inter-urban network and in large urban areas in England below current levels by 2010; • to improve air quality by meeting National Air Quality Strategy targets; and • to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% from 1990 levels, and move towards a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.