Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the European Train Control signalling system is classified as a (a) renewal or (b) enhancement for the purposes of Network Rail’s budget.

• As per the High Level Output Specification (HLOS), replacing assets at the point of renewal with ETCS (European Train Control System) represents the most cost effective way to transition the network. This is the approach that Network Rail will be using in Control Period 7 (2024-2029) and thus ETCS will be funded via renewals.
• The exception will be ETCS deployments that are part of wider enhancements (such as Transpennine Route Upgrade) which will primarily be funded via enhancements but may have some renewals funding, for example where assets needed to be renewed anyway.