Public Accounts Committee slams Network Rail for serious planning and budgeting failures, including an “unacceptable” £1.2bn overspend on Great Western Main Line project
Network Rail's five-year investment programme contains serious planning and budgeting failures, according to a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report released today.
In particular, the report calls the projected £1.2bn overspend on electrifying the Great Western Main Line between London and Cardiff “staggering and unacceptable”, and says there is “far too much uncertainty” about costs and delivery dates of the electrification projects on the TransPennine route and the Midland Main Line.
“Network Rail has lost its grip on managing large infrastructure projects,” said Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC. “The result is a twofold blow to taxpayers: delays in the delivery of promised improvements, and a vastly bigger bill for delivering them.”
Hillier continued: “The government has identified rail infrastructure as a vital part of its economic plans, for example in establishing what it describes as a ‘Northern Powerhouse’. It is alarming that, in planning work intended to support these plans, its judgement should be so flawed.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Network Rail has successfully delivered over 5,000 projects over the past five years, but our understanding of how best to plan and deliver major new electrification schemes was not good enough. We have now made significant changes to the way we plan and deliver our investment programme, which will see schemes progress only once they are sufficiently developed that a reliable cost estimate can be established.”
The Department for Transport, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and Network Rail agreed a £38.3bn spending programme to cover April 2014 to March 2019 in October 2013.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We are proud to have a hugely ambitious investment programme, but agree that lessons should be learned on all sides,” adding that they planned to respond to PAC in due course.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the ORR said: “The report recognises that problems have arisen which need addressing for rail users and taxpayers and makes a series of recommendations which affect a number of parties. We need to learn the lessons, and agree with PAC’s recommendations that uncertainties in key projects need to be addressed differently; clear accountability arrangements need to be in place for major projects; Network Rail needs to embed tighter project planning, cost control, and deliverability; and a sector-wide skills strategy for the rail industry is needed.”