Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the likely effectiveness of Network Rail’s asset renewal programme in Control Period 7 between 2024 and 2029; and what estimate she has made of the level of depreciation of Network Rail’s assets between 2024 and 2029.

Network Rail updates its Delivery Plan each year of the Control Period. As forecast at the start of CP7 we expect to see an increase in the average age of railway assets by the end of the Control Period. The impact of this, measured using the Composite Sustainability Index, was estimated in the year 2 update to Network Rail’s Delivery Plan to be a 2.6% reduction in asset sustainability. Depreciation of the value of the railway network up to 2029 is forecast to remain broadly consistent with about 1.8% annually, as set out in the Department for Transport’s 2024/25 Annual Report and Accounts.