Hello and welcome to our April newsletter.
March was a busy month across both economic, and health and safety matters. First off, we published our report into the costs and benefits of health and safety interventions. This sets out our recommendations to help improve how the industry makes these interventions effectively and efficiently on the rail network.
This has been a truly industry-wide project, and I am grateful to all duty holders and other organisations who engaged with us. We are hosting a webinar on 3 April to discuss our findings and answer any questions. Do let us know if you are interested in attending, you can find details of how to below.
We also published our annual report into rail productivity in March. Productivity is a major driver of growth and value – and rail is no different. Expenditure on the operational railway is more than £25 billion per year, with nearly half of this government funded, so even small percentage changes in productivity can make a big difference in value for passengers, freight users and taxpayers. The rail industry has experienced a recovery in productivity since the pandemic, however productivity remains below the level seen nearly a decade ago.
Ensuring a productive rail sector and helping to drive growth is a key focus of ours and we have been working closely with the Treasury on this. We are delighted that we have been asked to conduct a deep dive into the rail network investment framework with the rail supply chain to encourage direct investment into railway infrastructure and work has already started on this.
In March we also launched our review of the remedies in the rolling stock leasing market. Companies in this market are subject to transparency requirements following an investigation by the then Competition Commission, now Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2009. We last looked at the remedies in this market five years ago and said we would do so again within five years. If our review finds that there has been a material change in market conditions, we will look to make recommendations to the CMA.
Looking to the year ahead, train performance continues to be an area of focus. Throughout 2025 we are working with Network Rail and train operators on the reset of passenger train performance targets for Network Rail (and the associated financial incentives) that will apply from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029.
Our plans for the year ahead across all areas of responsibility will be published shortly in our annual business plan – please look out for that being published. We look forward to working with you on all these areas and rail reform throughout 2025 to 2026.
Will Godfrey
Director of Economics, Finance, and Markets
Top stories
Safety improving, though National Highways unlikely to meet target
Our third annual assessment of safety on the Strategic Road Network, published on 13 March, has shown that safety continues to improve on England’s major A-roads and motorways, but that National Highways is unlikely to meet its challenging safety target.
At our request, the company provided us with a Safety Improvement Plan in March 2024, which it is on track to complete by the end of 2025; however, it is unlikely to meet the target of halving the number of people killed or seriously injured on the strategic road network by the end of 2025. National Highways must now focus on implementing the remaining actions from its plan to further improve road user safety.
Assessing the costs and benefits of health and safety
We’ve published our key recommendations for ‘Assessing the costs and benefits of health and safety interventions in rail’ industry-wide review and wrote to industry with an update letter including a summary of key findings and recommendations.
We are hosting an online webinar on Thursday 3 April, from 2pm to 2.45pm where stakeholders can hear from the ORR team, alongside the Rail and Safety Standards Board (RSSB) and Network Rail, about our findings and recommendations and ask any questions. If you would like to attend, please email news@orr.gov.uk
Capacity at Temple Mills International
ORR has received an independent report, which indicates that Eurostar’s London depot would be able if required to accommodate additional trains. The report, commissioned by ORR, assessed the capacity at the operator’s Temple Mills International facility. Stakeholders are now being asked to provide evidence that they believe would support or change the findings. Stakeholders have until 28 April to submit their evidence, and ORR’s final conclusions will be published after the regulator has considered their responses.
Collaborative approach to managing increased track access applications
We've seen encouraging growth in rail service demand, with a higher-than-usual number of access applications from freight and passenger operators. In response, we've worked to establish a more structured approach, requesting formal submission of track access applications for the December 2024, May 2025, and December 2025 timetable changes.
Recent correspondence with Network Rail has yielded positive progress in transparency, with new information now available in the public domain to support industry planning. Network Rail's response to our recent request for more planning information demonstrates our shared commitment to progressing access applications as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
Looking ahead to December 2025's timetable change, we're continuing our collaborative work with Network Rail to assess the detail and robustness of capacity allocation, a partnership approach benefitting both operators and passengers alike.
Another Northumberland Line station opens
Newsham station, which was authorised by ORR earlier this month, has now opened to the public, providing improved connections across the region as part of the Northumberland Line project.
Blog
Productivity matters
Will Godfrey, ORR’s Director of Economics, Finance and Markets has published a blog about productivity on British railways, which is a huge driver of value and growth. This follows the publication of our rail industry productivity report which provides a useful baseline for how we could identify future productivity changes.
Statistics
In March we published the following statistics:
- Passenger rail performance data Published 6 March
- Signals passed at danger (SPADs) Published 6 March
- Freight rail usage and performance (Q3) Published 13 March
- Passenger rail usage Published 20 March