Holding Network Rail to account,as infrastructure manager for the GB mainline rail network, is one of the central ways in which we ensure that the railway is run in the most efficient way for users and funders. We also seek to enable an environment in which investment and growth can flourish. One way we do this is through setting and monitoring stable funding settlements for infrastructure, noting that both Network Rail and London St Pancras High Speed (HS1 Ltd) both spend significant amounts with the rail industry supply chain. Similarly for international services our work on access to essential facilities – including track, stations and depots – helps create an environment for entry and growth by new train operators.

Better train performance continues to be a focus; setting ambitious but realistic train performance targets is important for securing the continued recovery of passenger services following the pandemic. In PR23, we put in place firm targets for the first two years of CP7 and indicative targets for the remaining three years (April 2026 to March 2029). This year we will be consulting and concluding on a reset of Network Rail’s passenger train performance targets for the last three years of CP7.

In our annual assessment of Network Rail, we will look back at the company’s performance in the first year of Control Period 7 (CP7), setting out our views on delivery to stakeholders across its regions and functions against the targets set in the periodic review (PR23). We will follow this up with our annual efficiency and finance assessment, to report on how well its funding is being spent.

Further, we will undertake our day-to-day work holding the company to account for delivering train service improvements against its current targets. We will continue to be proactive in the way we do this, as we were for the Eastern Region last year, stepping in to protect the interests of passengers and freight users where we consider that Network Rail is not doing enough to deliver train performance.

This business year will be the first year of Control Period 4 (CP4) for London St Pancras High Speed (HS1 Ltd) and we will be publishing our annual assessment of the service, including a review of HS1’s delivery in Control Period 3.

Fair and effective competition is an important driver of value for money. This year we are conducting a review of the remedies on rolling stock leasing put in place in 2009 by the then Competition Commission (now Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)). We will also monitor implementation of the recommendations from our previous market studies on station catering, signalling and ticket gates.

We will consider any complaints arising about anti-competitive behaviour, opening new cases under our competition enforcement powers where appropriate.  We will provide advice to the CMA on rail-related mergers and will also provide competition advice to government and other stakeholders. We intend to publish our open access monitoring report in the second quarter of the year.

We are the publisher of official statistics for rail, gathering and reporting information on safety, industry finance, passenger usage and performance. The transparent reporting of statistics provides valuable and accessible information to the public and industry.

This year we will continue to improve the efficiency of our data capture, storage and reporting through increased automation. This will include launching an API that will allow users of our data to more efficiently extract the data they find useful, saving time and resources for us and our customers.

We will continue our focus on the productivity of the rail industry, building on our previous publications and looking to refine and improve our understanding of the efficiency of the sector.