78: NEWS – shortened consultation on railway operators for Planning Act 2008

This is entry number 78, first published on 21 December 2009, of a blog on the implementation of the Planning Act 2008. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to receive blog updates by email, click here.

This entry reports on a short consultation relating to railway infrastructure projects.

An earlier blog entry referred to one piece of secondary legislation that did not appear to be included in the government’s ‘route map’ for implementing the Planning Act and was potentially missing. It has now turned up, and is being consulted on for a festive four weeks.

The regulation sets out on whose network a railway project must be for it to be a nationally significant infrastructure project. Not surprisingly the two network operators that are identified are Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (who run the main national network) and Network Rail (CTRL) Ltd, who are the infrastructure operator for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, or High Speed 1, from the Channel Tunnel to St Pancras.

Note that this therefore excludes heritage railways, tramways, light railways, metro systems (e.g. the London underground), industrial railways and military railways.

The consultation period is rather shorter than the recommended 12 weeks, justified because John Healey, the Planning Minister, said what it would contain in Parliament on 2 June 2008, although he also referred to the Heathrow Express.

The consultation document does not appear to be on the DfT website yet, so I'll do the DfT's job for it. The deadline for responding is 13 January 2010. Responses should be addressed to Stephen Wolstenholme, Head of Rail Support and Communications Division, Zone 5/29, Department for Transport, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR; Tel: 020 7944 8317; stephen.wolstenholme@dft.gsi.gov.uk

That's it for 2009 - the blog will resume on 4 January 2010.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our readers!