Rail regulator consults on forward strategy and says industry needs to step up pace of long-term planning
21 July 2008
ORR/24/08
The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) today called on the rail industry to step up the pace of its planning to meet the long-term challenges it faces if it is to meet the expectations of its customers and of government.
ORR said that as the independent safety and economic regulator of Britain’s railways it was ready to do more to contribute to this. It could also take a bigger role in ensuring timely decisions and improving protection of customer interests.
With the current periodic review the industry has plans for continued improvement in safety, efficiency and performance, and extra capacity over the next five years. But last year’s White Paper envisaged much more than this - a railway capable in the longer term of handling double today’s level of passengers and freight traffic.
ORR said that to achieve this will require a transformation for the railways – of investment, responsiveness to customers, and efficiency.
The comments came as the ORR began consulting on its strategy for the next five years.
Chairman Chris Bolt and chief executive Bill Emery set out their ideas in a foreword to the consultation document:
“The planning to deliver this transformation needs to start now. We welcome the first steps the industry is taking. But the pace needs to accelerate. The quality and timeliness of decisions we all make over the next five years, and the commitments that result, will be critical to the long-term future of the railways.
“Clearly we - as the industry's independent regulator - will need to continue to do our core job of securing safe and effective delivery, so that railway users and funders get the railway services they are paying for. We must prepare for and deliver the next periodic review and work to improve the framework of accountability and incentives in the industry. We need to pursue continuous improvement in the way we do this, building on what we have achieved under our current strategy.”
But ORR believes it should do more than this:
“We are proposing that we should play a bigger role in identifying the longer-term issues and pressing the industry and Government to address them in timely and innovative ways. For instance, we could do more to facilitate some of the key decisions that will be needed in the next few years over issues such as new signalling and control systems; electrification; and the need for extra capacity to relieve an increasingly full network.
“We could also do more to address issues of direct interest to rail passengers and freight users, such as fare structures and ticket retailing, to complement the role of Passenger Focus and the role of Government as the provider of subsidy for the railways.”
Notes to editors
- 1. The document is published by the ORR and is available on the website: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/372.pdf
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