Competition

Competition in the supply chains which support Great Britain’s railway services is essential if passengers and taxpayers are to receive a high-quality service at an efficient cost.

Next in our series of legal blogs, we’re taking a look at our role in enforcing competition legislation.

Network Rail spends nearly £1bn per year on signalling, and costs are rising.

Following an Office of Rail and Road (ORR) study on the state of the railway signalling market, the rail regulator has today published Network Rail’s response to increase competitiveness and lower costs in the market.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has today accepted a set of commitments offered by the Railway Assessment Centre Forum (RACF) that will open the body to non-members, reducing restrictions on entry to the market and promote value for money by giving train companies more choice.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is consulting on proposals offered by Rail Assessment Centre Forum (RACF) that aim to open up the provision of train driver psychometric assessments to greater competition.

The current signalling market in Great Britain is valued at £800-900 million per year. As Britain’s railway infrastructure undergoes one of the most significant modernisation programmes in its history as it increasingly adopts digital technology, the market is expected to expand significantly. For change on this scale to be delivered affordably, Network Rail as the main buyer of signalling systems