UK: John Larkinson has announced his decision to leave the Office of Rail & Road at the end of April 2026, after two decades at the regulator and seven years as Chief Executive.
The ORR Chair and board will now start the process of recruiting a successor.
Larkinson joined ORR in 2005 and had been Director of Railway Planning & Performance, Programme Director 2013 Periodic Review and Director, Economic Regulation & Consumers. He was appointed to the board in March 2017, and became interim CEO in October 2018 before being appointed on a permanent basis in 2021 following a public competition.
‘It has been a great privilege to lead ORR through what has at times been a challenging, but ultimately overwhelmingly rewarding, period as the rail and road sectors recovered from the pandemic and as the rail sector is being reformed’, Larkinson said on December 10.
‘There is never a perfect time to move on, but most of my tenure as Chief Executive has been against a backdrop of rail reform, and I feel that the introduction of the Railways Bill into Parliament is an appropriate time to depart. I want to give a new Chief Executive the opportunity and the time to continue the process of transforming the ORR into its new roles set out in the Railways Bill and support the creation of Great British Railways.’
