Rail freight operator EWS has published its response to the Office of Rail Regulation’s consultation on the joint application by Network Rail and the Secretary of State for Transport in respect of the proposed 50-year Crossrail track access option.

The response can be viewed on the following link – http://www.ews-railway.co.uk/news/responses.html

From its inception, EWS has maintained its objection to the Crossrail Project; not because it opposes the scheme in principle but because of the detrimental impacts the scheme will have on rail freight’s use of key rail corridors, rail freight’s use of key rail freight terminals and the regulatory regime governing the UK rail industry.

EWS welcomes the opportunity to comment on the track access option. However, having given it careful consideration, EWS considers that the track access option as currently proposed would have a highly damaging effect on the interests of the rail freight industry, its operators and its customers. EWS believes that to approve the track access option, the Office of Rail Regulation would run contrary to most, if not all, of its duties in section 4(1) of the Railways Act 1993.

The overall effect of the track access option would be to damage the competitive position of rail freight operators, including EWS, on key routes in and around London thus jeopardising both existing business and future growth. The Government’s July 2007 White Paper ‘Delivering a Sustainable Railway’ comments on rail freight growth in relation to passenger growth: “It is not in the nation’s environmental or economic interests that passenger traffic should grow at the expense of freight traffic or vice versa. As a result, the Government has made it clear that it will ensure that policies and regulations do not put unnecessary obstacles in the way of future freight growth and that, in specifying passenger services, the needs of the rail freight industry are to be considered”.

EWS is seeking the following as a result of its response:

* For the Office of Rail Regulation to take account of all of EWS’s comments and concerns raised in this response;
* That no decision to be made by the Office of Rail Regulation on the track access option until all of the missing information highlighted in EWS’s response is completed and circulated to consultees for comment. This includes a Crossrail timetable accommodating both current levels of freight services and expected growth has been shown to work as well as an assessment of the adverse effects Crossrail will have on the rail freight industry;
* That the provisions in the track access option designed to ensure Crossrail has absolute priority over all other route users, including the ability to remove or alter other operators’ rights and override provisions of the Network Code, should be removed;
* The length of the track access option outside the Central Tunnel section and the line to Abbey Wood to be reduced to no more than 10 years;
* A firm statement by the Office of Rail Regulation that if it is to grant the track access option, it would expect to see the ‘railway matters’ clauses in the Crossrail Bill cut back in accordance with Annex 5 of the EWS response;
* Revisions to the track access option which conform to Office of Rail Regulation’s conclusions on its access option policy once these have been finalised.

Graham Smith, EWS Planning Director, said: “EWS calls for the Office of Rail Regulation to hold a hearing into the track access option application given the seriousness of EWS’s concerns and its firm belief that the track access option together with the Crossrail Bill will have a detrimental effect on rail freight in and around London, both in the short term and well into the future. The hearing should review the 50 year length of the access option and the ability to override freight access rights now and in the future,”