Newsletters

Office of Rail and Road May 2025 newsletter

30 April 2025
John Larkinson
John Larkinson
Chief Executive
Business plan 2025 to 2026

Hello, and welcome to May’s newsletter.

We have just published our Business Plan for 2025 to 2026 which I am delighted to share with you.  

The effect of Government reforms to the Civil Service, regulators and the railway will be a thread running through our work in the coming year, and one that is reflected in all our priorities for the coming year

We are committed to supporting the Government’s agenda for Civil Service efficiencies and savings through improvements to our own operations. This year we will be focusing on the increased use of technology, including AI, to automate and streamline our processes, reduce bureaucracy and improve response times. This will have positive benefits for both ORR and the industries we work with, increasing our productivity and delivery to all our stakeholders.  

This business plan also commits us to furthering the Government’s agenda for regulatory reform. We will be engaging with infrastructure managers on how to  reduce the administrative burdens we impose. We will also complete an ongoing review reporting to HM Treasury into how to encourage more private sector investment into the rail network.  

We will continue our work to support Government on rail reform. We are already working to provide the necessary safety permissions as English passenger train operators move into public ownership. We will be providing advice to Government and working with stakeholders as legislation is developed to set up Great British Railways.

As well as working through these changes, we will also remain focussed on the day job. Change can be beneficial, but it must not be a distraction. Our essential day job of frontline regulatory activities across the rail and road industries – from health and safety inspections and new train authorisations to holding companies to account on better customer service – will continue to be delivered. And we will continue to bring our expertise and independence to bear to achieve this.

John Larkinson 
Chief Executive

Top stories

ORR Business Plan published 

ORR's 2025 to 2026 Business Plan, published on Tuesday, focuses on how the regulator will continue to oversee Britain's rail and road networks through rigorous performance monitoring and stakeholder accountability.  

Strategic objectives remain focusing on a safer railway, better rail customer service, value for money from the railway and better highways.  

The plan also emphasises ORR's role in supporting the Government's regulatory reform agenda, reducing administrative burdens, and providing necessary guidance as English passenger train operators transition to public ownership under the developing Great British Railways framework.    

Read the full plan.

Changing how we report on punctuality

To help track and train to work better together, we’re changing how we assess and report on punctuality for passengers.  

A year ahead of next year’s official change on 1 April, we’ll be placing greater emphasis in all our activities on the ‘Time-to-3’ measure which counts what proportion of station stops are made within three minutes of the timetable. Both in assessing Network Rail’s delivery and how we report on performance, this also means we will focus more on the same measure that the Department for Transport uses to hold its operators to account and that is presented at stations.  

The change will start with our next statistical release, on 29 May, where ‘On Time’ and ‘Time-to-3’ measures will be presented alongside each other. ‘On Time’ remains an important operational measure, however, and results will continue to be available in our data tables.

Driving economic growth through investment – reviewing our Investment Framework

As part of our work to support the Government's strategy to boost investment and drive economic growth throughout the UK, we are conducting an in-depth analysis of our Rail Network Investment Framework, working with the industry’s supply chain to promote direct investment in railway infrastructure.  

We’re inviting the supply chain, private investors and developers to provide us with feedback by 16 May to help us to understand how effective the current framework is, whether there are any barriers to investing and what could be improved to better support investment in railway infrastructure and any other areas to take to consider.  

Find out more and respond.

Rail familiarisation for ORR staff

Office-based ORR staff who may not have a railway background, or those who are new to the regulator, are invited to get out and about on the railway on a familiarisation exercise as part of their induction, led by ORR Operations Advisors. The exercises have recently expanded to our Glasgow office, where the extensive rail network around the city is explained. Here Ops Advisor Luke Illingworth points out some of the infrastructure at Newton Station to a recent group.  

ORR met all our service standards in 2024 to 2025

Our service standards for 2025 to 2026 are part of this year’s business plan and we have met all of our service standards for the full year 2024 to 2025, and met the Government prompt payments target of 90% paid within 5 days of valid invoice. This was a new and more demanding target for ORR this year, replacing our previous target of 80% of invoices paid within 10 days. 

New ORR job pack launched 

We have launched a new generic job pack, to accompany job descriptions, for prospective candidates seeking a role with us. The pack focuses on the benefits and culture of working at ORR, to ensure that we continue to attract the best candidates to take our work forward. View our current vacancies. 

Blog

Protecting passengers stuck on stranded trains

Publication date 24 April

Nick Layt, Senior Manager, Consumer Policy & Compliance, has written a blog on the steps being taken following ORR’s and Transport Focus’ jointly commissioned research on how to improve the experience of passengers who are left stranded on trains following a number of high-profile incidents. 

Statistics