Template Agreements - Network Rail

To encourage third party investment in the network, Network Rail established in 2006, with ORR approval, a suite of template agreements for schemes up to £50 million. The template agreements have now been revised and were approved by ORR on the 5 February 2010. There has been extensive consultation with stakeholders in preparing these revisions, which also reflect ORR’s requirements (set out in ORR’s letters Investment framework – liabilities in Network Rail’s template investment contracts, 5 March 2009 and Investment framework – ORR conclusions on our review of the approach to third party investments, 9 May 2008).

A key objective in revising the Template Agreements has been to encourage investment in rail enhancements by finding solutions that reduce barriers to entry through the provision of a more economic and efficient contractual framework. The Template Agreements are aimed at reducing the need for time-consuming negotiations on contractual arrangements for each scheme, providing transparency on payments to Network Rail and having regards to its obligations and accountabilities.

Further information can be found in our guide to ‘Investing in the network’.

Types of agreement

There are nine different agreement types:

To assist our customers we have provided explanatory notes on each of the agreement types; please click on the link below for further details: Explanatory notes to template agreements

Simplifying investment

The template agreements reduce barriers to investment by:

Providing customers with options to deliver schemes under asset protection or to request Network Rail to deliver
Establishing a framework that allows Network Rail to take risk
Providing equitable distribution of risk
Removing “Industry Risks” from the Customer
Clarifying that Network Rail will be liable for contractors' performance when it is delivering schemes