Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that European Train Control System (ETCS) level 3 signalling will be installed successfully on the complete United Kingdom rail network within the 15 year timescale to which Network Rail is committed; when the European Commission issued the latest specification for this; and what consideration they have given to contingency plans to retain existing signalling if ETCS level 3 operation is delayed.
The current national deployment plan for ETCS is based upon Level 2 technology and not Level 3. The European specifications for ETCS Level 3 are not yet fully complete. We await timescales from the European Commission on when the specifications for ETCS Level 3 will become available.