Economic regulation

On 13 May 2008, we imposed a penalty of £14m on Network Rail because of systemic weaknesses in Network Rail's planning and execution of engineering work which represented a serious and continuing breach of its licence. These problems were exposed in our investigation into the overruns into the New Year. Improving project delivery - 2010 Audits - ORR letter to Network Rail 15 Jul 2010 Improving

A programme of international fact-finding visits was conducted during the summer and autumn of 2007 to a number of railway administrations in Europe, North America and Australia. This study tour was part of our work on the 2008 Periodic Review, which will determine the regulated outputs and access charges for the five year control period (CP4) between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014. To be able to

The 2008 Periodic Review (PR08) set the outputs that Network Rail must deliver, and the level of access charges paid by train operators for use of the infrastructure from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014, or control period 4 (CP4).

How we'll monitor Network Rail 2014-2019

The decisions we've made will help the railway to grow in a sustainable way which minimises the costs to taxpayers, passengers and freight customers.

The assessment of the scope for Network Rail to improve on its cost efficiency is central to our work, since it enables us to establish efficient levels of track access charges when we periodically review Network Rail's outputs as part of a balanced package.