Last month’s meeting of the International Project Finance Association, chaired by Darryl Murphy, Aviva Investors’ head of infrastructure debt, included a diverse panel of public and private sector stakeholders including representatives from Network Rail, investor developer Rock Rail, engineering and project management specialists Atkins, legal advisor DLA Piper, and Japanese financial service company & major infrastructure lender SMBC.
As part of the report’s conclusion Mark Swindell suggested, “There will be a revolution around this. It will be a different way of delivering a major enhancement project to the railways. The enactment will not be done by Network Rail; it will be done by alternative risk-bearing, privately-financed companies.”
“These new structures will work in compliance with the current regulatory environment and railway stakeholders’ current roles and responsibilities,” he added. “However, the new private-sector rail asset owners will work with all rail stakeholders to specify required outputs and will seek bankable supply and maintenance arrangements. These structures will need to be driven by the private sector and presented as solutions to the DFT and rail stakeholders as a new way of bringing funding into the railways.”
To read the full report please click here Harnessing private finance for UK rail June 2018
