Press releases

ORR welcomes industry progress on improving cost effective rail safety decisions

18 September 2025
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has today welcomed the progress made by industry towards the recommendations it set out as part of joint work with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and Network Rail to improve health and safety decision making.
Railway tracks

The regulator’s recommendations were designed to help the GB rail industry take a more evidence-based and consistent approach in weighing costs and benefits of safety decisions.

Since ORR published its recommendations in March 2025:

  • Network Rail has rolled out internal guidance and a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) tool, with plans  to ensure these are embedded and decision-makers apply them consistently;
  • RSSB has updated its CBA guidance and tools, and created training materials on Taking Safe Decisions;
  • ORR has refreshed its inspector training on risk assessment and CBA;
  • ORR is further improving its CBA capability and is working with RSSB on ongoing internal training;
  • ORR has provided its health and safety priorities to funders to support train operator business planning;
  • Regular senior-level forums continue between ORR and Network Rail on current and emerging health and safety issues and investment planning, including ensuring emerging safety concerns are addressed proactively in future planning cycles.

In the coming months, ORR will monitor the uptake and use of the new training, tools and guidance, ahead of a final review by March 2026. ORR will also consider how the approach can add value beyond the mainline railway, including heritage and metro operations.

Will Godfrey, ORR's Director of Economics, Finance and Markets, said:

“Better safety decision making will improve both the safety of our railway and maintain good value for money. As the joint economic and safety regulator, we can play a key role by working across both aspects of regulation to ensure the right outcome.”

Richard Hines, HM chief inspector of railways and ORR's director of railway safety, said:

“We welcome the significant work that RSSB, Network Rail and others have undertaken so far in responding to our recommendations. The test for industry now moves towards how these actions are implemented and we will be monitoring progress in this area before a final review in the spring.”

Marcus Dacre, RSSB’s head of risk and safety intelligence, said:

“Our new Taking Safe Decisions e-learning modules, and resources to support safety-related cost benefit analysis have been well received, with over 250 participants from 50 organisations registering for the programme since its introduction. We are supporting our members to maximise the value of these resources, with several organisations incorporating the training into their learning platforms.”

Martin Frobisher, Network Rail's safety and engineering director, said:

 "This important piece of work will help us to deliver affordable safety improvements to the railway. We have made good progress on these sensible recommendations and are already seeing positive results."

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