News

Office Of Rail Regulation's statement relating to our approval of Virgin Train's track access contract agreement to extend some rail services from London to both Shrewsbury and Blackpool, from December 2014.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) today welcomes the commitment of the rail industry to improve passenger information during disruption and sets out what it expects to see in a new action plan to be published in November.

As director of health and safety and HM chief inspector of railways, I lead a team of inspectors who spend most of their time out and about on the railways. We work with Network Rail, train operators and others from across the industry to help make Britain's railways safer whether you are travelling or working on them. Inspectors have been doing this for quite a while – 175 years next year.

Balfour Beatty Rail Projects Ltd has today been fined £350,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000 following a prosecution by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). The company has been found guilty of breaching health and safety law, and causing a rail worker to suffer serious burns after coming into contact with the 25000 volt overhead lines near Cricklewood in March 2011.

Britain's railways are carrying record numbers of passengers and freight on the network today – there were more than 1.5bn passenger journeys on the network in 2013-14, up from around 1.2bn in 2008-09. The amount of freight goods carried has increased from 102.7 million tonnes in 2008-09 to 116.6 million tonnes in 2013-14.

Welcome to the new ORR blog. One of the privileges of being chief executive is that I get the first crack at writing a blog entry. I want to use this to give you a better insight into what people at ORR do and why - working across the industry to ensure an efficient, effective and safe railway for everyone.

The Office of Rail Regulation's (ORR) annual safety report published today warns the industry of safety challenges in managing record levels of rail traffic and calls for better infrastructure management. Britain's railways remain amongst the safest in Europe, however latest data highlights an increase in track workers coming to harm and safety incidents on platforms, such as when passengers get

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has today concluded its assessment of Network Rail's performance against funded obligations between 2009 and 2014 for Scotland, England and Wales. ORR highlights enhancements and growth in Britain's railways, as well as shortfalls in performance for passengers which require the company to return £53.1m to funders and improve the resilience of the network.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has today concluded its assessment of Network Rail's performance against funded obligations between 2009 and 2014. ORR highlights enhancements and growth in Britain's railways, as well as shortfalls in performance for passengers which require Network Rail to return £53.1m to funders and improve the resilience of the network.

Today (3 June) ORR is supporting International Level Crossing Awareness Day – a global campaign to raise public awareness of the risks and dangers posed by level crossings. This year the focus is on 'professional drivers'.