Office of Rail & Road news
News about the Office of Rail & Road, which regulates the UK railway industry.
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Rail Business UKStreamlined guidance aims to facilitate third party investment in rail infrastructure
UK: The Office of Rail & Road has published streamlined guidance designed to make third party investment in rail infrastructure easier.
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Rail Business UKRail freight sector raises concerns about Great British Railways plans
UK: The rail freight sector has expressed concern that the future Great British Railways might focus on its own nationalised passenger services at the expense of freight operations, which will remain in the private sector.
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Rail Business UKRail regulator tightens rules on redress when disabled passenger assistance fails
UK: An update to the Office of Rail & Road’s Accessible Travel Policy guidance has made it mandatory for all train and station operators to make a case-by-case assessment of claims for redress from disabled passengers when their booked assistance fails.
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NewsGemini Trains still hopes to exploit Channel Tunnel capacity
EUROPE: Gemini Trains still has ambitions to launch train services between the UK and continental Europe, despite the rejection of its application for depot access rights needed to enable it to launch services from London to Paris, Brussels and eventually Köln.
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Rail Business UKVirgin Trains granted depot access paving the way for launch of Channel Tunnel high speed services
UK: The rail regulator has approved Virgin Trains’ application for depot access which it needs under its plans to launch high speed passenger train services from London through the Channel Tunnel to Paris and Brussels from 2030.
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Rail Business UKFirstGroup announces Cardiff – York open access plan and tries again to serve Rochdale
UK: FirstGroup has made initial submissions of three separate applications to the Office of Rail & Road for new and extended open access passenger train services which would be operated under its Lumo brand.
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NewsTransport Secretary accepts recommendations of revenue protection review
UK: Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander has written to train operators saying that she has accepted in full the recommendations of the Office of Rail & Road’s review of revenue protection practices.
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Rail Business UKASLEF flushed with success after rail industry agrees to five-point plan on toilet access
UK: Five actions have been agreed to improve railway workers’ access to safe, clean, accessible and dignified toilets, with a Welfare Charter to be adopted by World Toilet Day on November 19 2025.
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Rail Business UKRegulator approves additional East Coast Main Line open access services but Hull Trains to Sheffield is rejected
UK: The Office of Rail & Road has approved the launch of additional and extended services by open access operators Lumo, Grand Central and Hull Trains, but it has rejected Hull Trains’ plans to launch a service to Sheffield.
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Rail Business UKTrain operator rating system aims to improve assistance for disabled passengers
UK: The Office of Rail & Road is to begin benchmarking and rating each train operator on its delivery of passenger assistance services, with the aim of enabling better targeted interventions.
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NewsRegulator rejects West Coast Main Line open access train service plans
UK: Would-be operators have responded with disappointment to the rail regulator’s decision that there is insufficient capacity to launch three open access passenger train services on the West Coast Main Line.
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Rail Business UKOpen access must genuinely add value, says DfT
UK: The Department for Transport has written to the Office of Rail & Road to stress the ‘critical importance’ of considering the cumulative financial and performance impact when deciding whether to approve applications to run open access passenger services.
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Metro Report InternationalRIDDOR access incorporated into light rail safety reporting system
UK: The processes for statutory incident reporting in the light rail sector are to be streamlined into a single access point.
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Rail Business UKCross-Channel depot has room for one more train operator, says ORR
UK: The rail regulator has concluded that there is room for at most one new Channel Tunnel train operator at the Temple Mills international depot in London.
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Rail Business UKRegulator says reform of rail fare enforcement is urgently needed
UK: The Office of Rail & Road has called for urgent reforms to make the handling of train ticketing irregularities more consistent, fairer and effective.
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Rail Business UKRegulator proposes changes to redress policies for when disabled passenger assistance fails
UK: The Office of Rail & Road is consulting on revising its Accessible Travel Policy guidance so that claims for redress when booked assistance fails disabled passengers are always considered on the circumstances in each case.
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Rail Business UKRegulator makes recommendations for assessing costs and benefits of health and safety interventions
UK: The Office of Rail & Road has published 10 recommendations to help the rail industry make health and safety interventions more effectively and efficiently. ORR led an industry-wide project, collaborating with Network Rail, train and freight operating companies, the Rail Safety & Standards Board and others, ...
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Rail Business UKFreight sector says rail reforms need to offer investors more certainty
UK: The government’s rail reforms must provide more robust guarantees and stronger regulation so that freight operators have fair and economically viable access to the Great British Railways network and investors will be willing to look at the sector, politicians and industry representatives said at the ...
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Rail Business UKGovernment sets out its plan for how Great British Railways will work
Rail Business UK looks at the details of the government’s rail reform plans, which would restructure the industry and establish Great British Railways as a new body bringing together infrastructure and operations in the biggest shake-up of the sector since privatisation.
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Rail Business UKFirstGroup makes its case for open access alongside Great British Railways
UK: FirstGroup has set out its case for retaining a ‘thriving’ open access sector as part of the restructured railway, arguing that privately-funded services without government contracts can drive growth across all operators including those to be controlled by Great British Railways.