Sections 230 to 233: Access agreements
239.Section 230 enables the Rail Regulator to give general approvals for access agreements of a specified class or description and makes provision for their publication and revocation.
240.Section 231 and Schedule 24 set out procedures relating to the review by the Rail Regulator of the terms of an access agreement or a linked licence as to the amounts payable under the access agreement by one of the parties to the other (an “access charges review”) for the use of a railway facility. Under paragraph 11 of Schedule 28 these procedures will apply to review of access charges currently being undertaken by the Rail Regulator, in the event that it has not been concluded when the new procedures comes into force on Royal Assent.
241.Where the Rail Regulator wishes to initiate an access charges review he must serve a notice on the parties to an access agreements and other persons with an interest in the facility setting out, among other things, his conclusions on the access charges review and the changes to the access agreement or linked licence which are necessary to bring these conclusions into force.
242.If the facility owner or the other person with an interest in the facility who is served with the review notice object to a review notice, the Rail Regulator must either serve a revised review notice or refer the questions raised in the access charges review to the Competition Commission, who must investigate and report on whether they operate or may be expected to operate against the public interest and whether any effects adverse to the public interests should be remedied or prevented. If the Competition Commission concludes that the matters so referred do operate against the public interest and that the adverse effects should be remedied or prevented there are procedures under which the Rail Regulator or the Competition Commission may effect the necessary changes to the relevant access agreement or linked licence.
243.If the access beneficiary – the person who uses the facility in question – objects to an access charges review or to any changes required by the Rail Regulator, or the Competition Commission in accordance with the provisions in Schedule 24, he may terminate the access agreement.
244.Section 232 enables the Regulator to direct that an access agreement or network installation contract be amended to permit more extensive use of the railway facility or network installation in question. The section also applies procedures in Schedule 4 of the 1993 Act to these new direction powers. The section makes it clear that the Regulator may give directions requiring the parties to an access agreement which are necessary in his opinion to give effect to the conditions of a licence.
245.Section 233 enables the Regulator to act in relation to contracts for the use of railway facilities or network installations which are proposed to be constructed or in the course of construction.
