July marks the month when we publish our annual reports for the areas that we oversee. Summaries of our work in holding Network Rail and National Highways to account, health and safety across the rail industry, and our consumer activity follow below. Separately, our annual assessment of London St Pancras Highspeed will be published at the end of July.
It was a pleasure to see so many of you again at our event in London (pictured above) discussing our published rail reports.
Meanwhile, we have continued to support recent UK Government commissions to reduce the administrative burden of regulation on industry and on our deep dive to encourage greater private investment in the railway. In respect of the latter, I am grateful for the engagement from industry and wider stakeholders in helping to identify barriers to investment and how to support investor confidence.
I wish you a restful break over the summer. Our newsletter will return for its September issue.
John Larkinson
Chief Executive
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Annual reports
ORR has released its four annual reports covering Network Rail, Industry-wide Health and Safety; National Highways, and Consumers.
Rail safety performance remains generally strong but industry must keep focus on safety throughout rail reform
Our annual report on health and safety focuses heavily this year on Network Rail’s assets. Substantial progress was made in addressing overdue assessments for structures and drainage assets, although this has been achieved following our focussed attention.
The report underscores that safety remains the railway’s most critical obligation, especially as the industry undergoes its most significant reform in a generation with the creation of Great British Railways. The report stresses the importance of strong leadership, collaboration, and proactive risk management to maintain safety standards. Noting ORR’s enforcement actions and oversight have been instrumental in addressing these issues. The report notes several high-potential risk events, particularly at level crossings, signals passed at danger, and overspeeding. It also highlights a freight train derailment in Audenshaw that exposed weaknesses in maintenance arrangements.
The report also calls for clear accountability and visible safety leadership to ensure that health and safety remains a guiding principle throughout the ongoing industry reform process, while also promoting a more inclusive and resilient safety culture
The report also covers our work on welfare provision and the Improvement Notices and criminal prosecutions we concluded over the last year.
Strong efficiency gains but £488m funding gap needs resolving – our Annual Assessment of Network Rail
Our Annual Assessment of Network Rail found that punctuality remained largely stable in the last year but cancellations reached record highs. While most cancellations were attributed to Train Operating Companies (TOCs), Network Rail missed its national targets for reliability and punctuality although these are whole industry targets. NR met national targets for its own delay minutes.
On the efficiency side, Network Rail delivered strong gains in 2024-25, achieving £325 million in savings - £63 million above target. However, the company has a significant funding gap of £488 million which we have asked it to take action to resolve.
You can read more, including regional breakdowns.
National Highways delivers major schemes and savings but key targets missed
ORR’s assessment of National Highways’ performance over the last five years noted the company opened fifty major enhancement schemes to traffic with another eleven under construction; achieved improved environmental outcomes; met targets for clearing incidents, mitigating the impact of roadworks; and maintaining the road surface in good condition..
National Highways also made £2.2bn in efficiency savings, more than its target. This is notable in the context of high inflation during the period, and a significantly altered programme, including the National Emergency Area Retrofit scheme on all lane running smart motorways.
However, the company missed or is likely to miss five of its 12 key performance indicators, for reasons both within and outside its control.
National Highways has however already made good progress on the improvement plan it produced following ORR action last year. We will continue to work with it in the coming period to support its contribution to driving economic growth.
Consumer Report : A Busy Year!
It has been a busy year on the consumer front, and the Consumer Annual Report covers our main interventions in areas where we have responsibility. Among other things it includes our work:
- securing increased transparency for passengers on fees for tickets bought online;
- bringing industry together to consider how to embed best practice in relation to the safety and welfare of passengers in stranded train incidents; and
- in relation to accessibility, consulting on a new framework for benchmarking operators’ performance in providing assistance to passengers. This will help us better target our interventions to drive improvements for passengers.
Finally, the report considers the learnings from our report on Revenue Protection Practices, which was commissioned by the Department for Transport.
CP7 Reset
As part of our ongoing assessment of Network Rail’s economic regulation, we are currently seeking views on a revised set of the passenger train performance targets proposed for monitoring, and financial incentive parameters which will be holding Network Rail to account covering the last three years of the CP7 control period.
When PR23 concluded in April 2024 we set measures and targets for the first two years of CP7 – 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2026, with indicative targets for the final three years of the Control Period. Following modelling, we feel we have determined ambitious but realistic targets, and look forward to seeing your responses to the consultation.
The consultation closes on 5 September and we welcome your views.
ORR Annual Report and Accounts celebrates our work in 2024 to 2025
Our Annual Report and Accounts was published on 15 July, recapping ORR’s work across 2024 and 2025.
Podcasts
The Rail and Road Pod Episode 26: Lego and dinosaurs - ORR engineers on their chosen careers
To mark the recent International Women in Engineering Day, four ORR engineers recall their career paths, their work at ORR and give advice on those interested in joining their profession.
Statistics
So far in July we have published the following statistics: