The Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

Performance scheme N.I.

16.—(1) The infrastructure manager must establish a performance scheme as part of the charging system to encourage railway undertakings and the infrastructure manager to minimise disruption and improve the performance of the network.

(2) The performance scheme referred to in paragraph (1) may include—

(a) penalties for actions which disrupt the operation of the network;

(b) compensation for undertakings which suffer from disruption; and

(c) bonuses that reward better than planned performance.

(3) The performance scheme referred to in paragraph (1) must be based on the basic principles listed in paragraph 7 of Schedule 2 and must apply in a non-discriminatory manner throughout the network to which that scheme relates.

(4) The infrastructure manager must, as soon as possible, communicate to the railway undertaking a calculation of payments due under the performance scheme.

(5) A calculation under paragraph (4) must encompass all delayed train runs within a period of at most one month.

(6) Without prejudice to existing appeal procedures and to the right of appeal under regulation 32, in the case of disputes relating to the performance scheme, a dispute resolution system must be made available in order to settle such matters promptly.

(7) The dispute resolution system described in paragraph (6) must be impartial towards the parties involved and, if this system is applied, a decision must be reached within a time limit of 10 working days.

(8) Once a year, the infrastructure manager must publish the annual average level of performance achieved by the railway undertakings on the basis of the main parameters agreed in the performance scheme.