Do read the article - interesting food for thought. And a question from me - with ^34Bn of debt, how much of my train fare currently goes to the servicing of that debt?
Good question - difficult to answer exactly!
The statistics published by the
DfT» (for England and Wales) and the
ORR» (for all the
UK▸ ) show that for the last couple of years the fare income from all the
TOCs▸ taken together pays for train operation and (very nearly) for all of Network Rail's ongoing operations, maintenance and renewals. Prior to that Network Rail also borrowed money to cover the deficit it ran on operations, maintenance, renewals and enhancements:
NR» has now managed to increase the bang it gets for each buck and the access charges now (very nearly) cover the ongoing operations, maintenance and renewals costs. The
enhancements are still covered by borrowing, from now on from the Treasury rather than in the open market. Anyway, as you say, the total borrowings have now reached ^34bn.
The annual interest on these borrowings amounts to some ^1.5bn and is covered by the Network Grant made directly to Network Rail by the Government.
So the answer to your question is - it depends entirely on how one allocates the Network Grant! Should it be considered as effectively a subsidy to the TOCs to pay for enhancements to the infrastructure or should it be seen in the same way as road grants which pays for the infrastructure directly?
Total fare income is around ^7.5 billion, so in the first case the interest could be considered as taking up 20% of your fare. If it is considered as part of the cost to central Government of supplying the infrastructure then it doesn't take any of the fare - but does take a part of your taxes!
So, whichever way you look at it - you're paying!
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