The Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Capacity allocation

15.—(1) Whilst respecting the requirements for management independence stipulated in regulation 7, the Department may establish a framework for the allocation of infrastructure capacity.

(2) The infrastructure manager shall, subject to paragraph (3), be responsible for the establishment of specific capacity allocation rules and for the process of allocating of infrastructure capacity in respect of the infrastructure for which he has responsibility.

(3) An infrastructure manager responsible for any of the functions of the infrastructure manager described in this Part and Schedule 3 must, in its legal form, organisation or decision-making functions, be independent of any railway undertaking and, where he is not so independent, that infrastructure manager must ensure that the functions of the infrastructure manager described in this Part are performed by an allocation body that is so independent.

(4) Subject to paragraph (7), any applicant may apply to the infrastructure manager for the allocation of infrastructure capacity.

(5) The infrastructure manager must ensure that the allocation process is conducted in accordance with the timetable set out in Schedule 3.

(6) Subject to paragraph (8), an applicant who has been granted capacity by the infrastructure manager, whether that capacity is in the form of—

(a) a framework agreement made in accordance with regulation 16 specifying the characteristics of the infrastructure granted; or

(b) specific infrastructure capacity in the form of a train path,

must not trade that capacity with another applicant or transfer it to another undertaking or service.

(7) Any person who trades in capacity contrary to the provisions of paragraph (6) shall not be entitled to apply for capacity under paragraph (4) for the period of the working timetable period to which the allocation of capacity transferred related.

(8) The use of capacity by a railway undertaking on behalf of an applicant who is not a railway undertaking, in order to further the business of that applicant, is not a transfer for the purpose of paragraph (6).

(9) The infrastructure manager must not allocate capacity in the form of specific train paths for any period in excess of one working timetable period.

(10) A contract, either in the form of a framework agreement or any other type of contract, setting out the rights and obligations of the parties, must be concluded between the infrastructure manager and any applicant to whom infrastructure capacity is allocated before that infrastructure capacity is utilised.

(11) The infrastructure manager must—

(a) ensure that infrastructure capacity is allocated on a fair and non-discriminatory basis;

(b) ensure that the contracts referred to in paragraph (10) are non-discriminatory, transparent, and in accordance with the requirements of these Regulations; and

(c) respect the confidentiality of information supplied to him as part of the capacity allocation process.

(12) In reserving infrastructure capacity for the purposes of scheduled track maintenance, as requested under regulation 17(3), the infrastructure manager must take into account the effect of that reservation on applicants.