Access and licensing

Train companies have a number of consumer facing obligations and it is important that passengers get the service to which they are entitled. We oversee a number of these obligations which sit in train companies’ licences and in general consumer law (others sit, for example in train companies’ franchise agreements with Government).

All licensed operators must have an Accessible Travel Policy (ATP) to comply with their operating licence.

This page sets out details of the workshop we held on our proposals to establish a cap on variable usage charge and a freight-specific charge, on Thursday 12 July 2012.

Licence exemptions exempt named operators from the requirement to hold a licence.

Under Part M of Network Rail's Network Code, a party can appeal to ORR against any determination made by the relevant panel of the Access Disputes Committee which it considers to be wrong or unjust because of a serious procedural or other irregularity.

This page contains information on our consideration of capacity, performance and current applications for access on the East Coast Main Line (ECML). Process for current applications We have provided a number of updates to stakeholders to set out how we plan to take forward our consideration of competing applications on the ECML. Decision letter ECML decision letter 12 May 2016 Track Access

This page contains track access decisions by section since 2014. For older decisions visit the National Archives.

If a railway operator wants to access the railway network, it must apply to us for a track access agreement with Network Rail.