17th July, 2025
Safety must be priority for Network during rail reform
ORR Report 2024-2025
One of the highlights contained in the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) annual report, released today, Thursday, 17th July, is that Britain’s railway remains one of the safest in Europe.
An ongoing concern is the record number of train cancellations, most of which are attributed to train operating companies, and the financial challenges facing Network Rail.
The report’s assessment of Network Rail showed it continued to demonstrate good health and safety performance, and the overall train accident risk compares broadly with recent years.
However, serious incidents continue across the network, including 29 events with a high potential risk events.
These were mostly at level crossings, where the regulator will conduct inspections across all Network Rail regions to assess how effectively risk at level crossings is being managed.
There is concern over the increasing number of signals passed at danger (SPAD) events, such as the fatal passenger train collision incident at Talerddig in October, where one passenger died and many others were injured.
The regulator is also looking for a coordinated cross-industry focus to address train overspeeding risk.
With the process of rail reform, there must be a continuing focus on safety through proactive risk management, clear accountability, and visible safety leadership at every level.
Health and safety must not be just a priority, but a guiding principle through every decision in every part of the system.
From April 2024 to March 2025 there were 1.73bn passenger journeys, an increase of 7% from the previous year.
Punctuality was much the same, with 84% of passenger trains arriving within three minutes of their scheduled arrival time,.
Scotland was the only part of the UK where the cancellations target was met. At 4.1%, up from 3.8% the previous year, cancellations reached a record high, mostly due to train operators.
Network Rail also missed its national targets for reliability and punctuality, with enforcement action being taken in its Wales & Western region, to secure better performance improvement plans, which resulted in improved train performance.
Elsewhere, Network Rail responded to the regulator’s challenges on performance in other regions, having made good progress on many issues highlighted by the regulator, including developing a better plan to improve performance in its Eastern region.
Network Rail was also required to speed up making decisions on train operator access to the network, as its short-term access rights process limits the ability of train operators, especially open access and freight operators, to plan and invest in rolling stock and train crew.
Although Network Rail achieved £325 million in savings through strong efficiency gains, which was £62 million above its target, in England and Wales, it had a significant funding gap of £488 million, which the regulator has tasked it to take action to resolve.
“The mainline rail network is at a turning point. Rail reform presents an opportunity to do things differently, working better together to improve the experience of all rail users, but its full implementation is some years away and the issues we have raised will not be solved by rail reform alone. Overall Network Rail has performed well in a tight financial environment, but it will need to focus relentlessly on every aspect of how it plans and delivers, because there is little margin for error in its regulatory settlement.”
John Larkinson, chief executive
