Seeks feedback on the draft Retail Code of Practice which will provide safeguards in the rail retail market in connection with GBR’s integrated role as both operator of industry-wide retail systems and rail ticket retailer.
Who should respond to this consultation?
We welcome views from interested parties including:
- current and prospective rail ticket retail market participants, and their representatives
- investors in the rail ticket retail market
- regional governments
- train operators (publicly funded and open access)
What we are consulting on
- Government policy is to establish GBR as an integrated railway body while maintaining a fair and open online retail market that gives confidence to retailers and delivers good outcomes for passengers and taxpayers.
- GBR will launch its own online ticketing website and app, replacing the 14 existing train operating company websites and apps. Third party ticket retailers will continue to sell train tickets for GBR services, and those of devolved and open access operators, as they do now.
- In the context of the online ticket retail market, changes under the rail transformation programme mean that GBR, as the largest passenger services operator, will run passenger railway services, set the customer offer for most services in Great Britian, and sell tickets - both online and in person. It will also exercise market-wide retail functions relied upon by all retailers (including GBR itself) to participate in the market.
- In March 2026 the Secretary of State asked ORR to prepare a Retail Code of Practice, applicable to GBR, within this policy framework. GBR’s operator licence will include a condition requiring compliance with the Retail Code of Practice.
- The Retail Code of Practice is intended to provide a proportionate means of addressing the potential risks arising from GBR's role managing market-wide retail functions while also operating as an online ticket retailer.
- Our draft Retail Code of Practice sets expectations for access to products and services by retailers, managing conflicts of interest, protecting commercially sensitive information, making market-wide decisions fairly and transparently, ORR’s compliance monitoring and, where necessary, enforcement action.
- We are encouraging independent retailers, rail operators, and other interested organisations to respond to the consultation.
How to submit your response
Please submit your response by 11 December 2026. You can choose to:
- Send an email to RCOP@orr.gov.uk
- Respond via our Word response form.
- Write to us at:
Retail Code of Practice consultation
Office of Rail and Road
25 Cabot Square
London
E14 4QZ
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ORR has actively considered the needs of blind and partially sighted people in accessing documents in PDF format. Individuals and organisations can use free Adobe Reader accessibility features or screen readers to read the contents of this document.
If you need this consultation document in a different format, such as Easy Read, large print, audio recording or braille, please contact us via:
Email: Webteam@orr.gov.uk
Telephone: 0207 282 2000 [select option 3]
Post:
Public Correspondence Team
Office of Rail and Road
25 Cabot Square
London
E14 4QZ
We will consider your request and will endeavour to get back to you with the accessible format within 10 working days.
Publishing your response Collapse accordion Open accordion
We plan to publish all responses to this consultation on our website.
If you want any information in your response to be treated as confidential, please state this clearly and explain the reasons why, for us to consider. If your response does contain information you would like to be treated as confidential, please include it separately where possible or provide a summary that does not contain confidential details so that we can publish the non-confidential parts.
Please be aware that all information sent to us may still be subject to disclosure in accordance with the information access rights granted by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).
If we receive a request for the disclosure of information you have sent us that we have not published, we will aim to contact you so that we can take your views into account, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on ORR.
Use of your personal data
The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of an official function vested in ORR.
Any personal data you provide to us will be used for the purposes of this consultation and will be handled in accordance with our privacy notice which sets out how we comply with the UK GDPR and the DPA.
We will publish your consultation response, withholding or redacting confidential information where appropriate. We will not publish your personal data.
ORR staff may have access to your information for the duration of the consultation process. This will be no longer than a year’s duration and all information submitted in response to a consultation which has not been published on our website, will be deleted.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
We may use AI to analyse consultation responses and identify key themes. Your name and contact details will be removed prior to the use of AI. The data will not be used to train or improve third party AI models and will remain under the control of ORR.