Decision letter
Head Office:25 Cabot Square, London E14 4QZT: 020 7282 2000 orr.gov.uk
Cl ai re Br oo ks
Access Executive
8 March 2024
Akaash Bhandari
Franchise and Access Support Manager
Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd
2nd Floor, Baskerville House
Centenary Square
Broad Street
Birmingham, B1 2ND
Scott Turner
Network Access Manager
West Midlands Trains Ltd
134 Edmund Street
Birmingham
B3 2ES
Dear Akaash and Scott,
Approval of the 24th supplemental agreement to the track access
contract between Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (Network Rail) and
West Midlands Trains Limited dated 15 May 2019.
We have today approved the above supplemental agreement submitted to us formally on 6
March 2024 under section 22 of the Railways Act 1993 (the Act). This follows an earlier
informal submission of a draft agreement for our consideration. This letter explains the
reasons for our decision.
Purpose
The purpose of this agreement is to grant West Midlands Trains firm rights to 7 services
identified as running without access rights during a due diligence exercise. The service
groups being amended are EJ02 (2 firm rights), EJ03 (3 firm rights) and EJ04 (2 firm
rights). These rights will expire at PCD 2024.
The missing firm rights were covered by the 21st General Approval (90-day contingent
rights) which expired on the 4 February 2024. The 24th Supplemental Agreement was
informally submitted to ORR on Wednesday 31 January 2024 which was only 2 working
days before the 21st General Approval expired on Sunday 4 February 2024. This gave
ORR no opportunity to review the submission in time to meet the expiring General
Approval. Future applications need to be submitted to ORR in a timely manner so that the
review can be carried out fully prior to any rights lapsing.
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