The Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019

Financial transparency

8.  After regulation 9 (separation of accounts) insert—

“Financial transparency

9A.— (1) Infrastructure managers must not use income from infrastructure network management activities for any purposes other than to finance the business of the infrastructure manager, but this may include the servicing of the infrastructure manager’s loans and the payment of dividends to its shareholders provided that the income is not used to pay dividends to undertakings within a vertically integrated undertaking which exercise control over both a railway undertaking and the infrastructure manager.

(2) Infrastructure managers must not grant loans to railway undertakings, either directly or indirectly.

(3) Railway undertakings must not grant loans to infrastructure managers, either directly or indirectly.

(4) Loans between legal entities of a vertically integrated undertaking may only be granted, disbursed and serviced at market rates and conditions which reflect the risk profile of the entity concerned.

(5) Other legal entities within a vertically integrated undertaking may only provide services to the infrastructure manager if those services are provided on a contractual basis and paid for at market rates or at prices which reflect the cost of production, plus a reasonable margin of profit.

(6) Debts attributed to the infrastructure manager must be—

(a) clearly separated from debts attributed to other legal entities within vertically integrated undertakings, and

(b) serviced separately from debts attributed to other legal entities within vertically integrated undertakings,

but, this does not prevent the final payment of debts being made via an undertaking which is part of a vertically integrated undertaking and which exercises control over both a railway undertaking and an infrastructure manager, or via another entity within the undertaking.

(7) Within vertically integrated undertakings, the infrastructure manager must keep detailed records of any commercial and financial relations with the other legal entities within that undertaking.

(8) In vertically integrated undertakings, the accounts of the infrastructure manager and of the other legal entities must be kept in a way that ensures fulfilment of the requirements of this regulation and allows for separate accounting and transparent financial circuits within the undertaking.

(9) Where essential functions are performed by a charging or allocation body in accordance with regulation 14(6) or 19(3), the provisions of this regulation apply to that body and references in this regulation to infrastructure manager, railway undertaking and other legal entities of a vertically integrated undertaking are to be taken as references to the respective divisions of the undertaking in question.

(10) This regulation does not apply to private infrastructure managers that are party to a public-private partnership concluded before 24th December 2016 where—

(a) the infrastructure manager does not receive any public funds, and

(b) any loans or financial guarantees operated by the infrastructure manager do not directly or indirectly benefit specific railway undertakings.”.