Rail regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has published its annual assessment of High Speed 1 (HS1) Ltd, the company that manages and operates the high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel, which shows that HS1 has missed several key performance targets.
Despite the company having made improvements since the regulator raised concerns about asset renewals last year,
HS1 and its contractor Network Rail (High Speed) failed to meet targets on lift, escalator and travelator availability, workforce health and safety and train performance, although then latter, at 7.25 seconds delay per train average, remains much better than the rest of the mainline railway in Britain.
ORR reported that it has seen evidence that the same lift, escalator and travelator assets, some in critical locations to train operators, are failing repeatedly, even shortly after renewals. It is therefore challenging the company to ensure that it is managing station assets in accordance with best practice, and taking all reasonable steps to mitigate impacts on passengers and train operators.
On workforce health and safety, ORR reported an increase in minor injuries, many of which could be attributed to Network Rail (High Speeds)’s management of subcontractors.
Although train delays are small, averaging only 7.25 second per train , this is both higher than the target (5.44 seconds) and the actual achieved delays from the previous year (4.00 seconds).
There were 10 major delays (over 200 minutes) in 2022-23 as opposed to five in the previous year. One was due to a de-wirement, the first on the history of HS1, that was caused by a train fault. The bulk of the delays were caused by point failures, and the ORR is looking for Network Rail (High Speed) to make improvements in this area.
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