Main Menu
Welcome to the Office of Rail Regulation
The independent safety and economic regulator for the railway industry
On 1 April 2006, in addition to our role as economic regulator, ORR became the health and safety regulator for the rail industry when responsibility was transferred from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). This transfer of responsibility was given effect in the Railways Act 2005. Follow the left-hand navigation for more about our key roles.
Passenger services operating on the rail network are provided by train operating companies under the terms of franchises specified and monitored by the Department for Transport (DfT). However, it should be noted that First ScotRail's passenger franchise is specified and monitored by the Scottish Executive and that of Arriva Trains Wales by the DfT and the National Assembly for Wales.
Latest publications
The three most recent documents we have published are accessible below. For all material published in the last three months please navigate to
News & publications.
The Railway Safety Directive (2004/49/EC) lists a number of tasks for the National Safety Authorities (NSAs) in member states. These include, in Article 18, the requirement for the safety authority to publish an annual report about its activities in the preceding year, and to send this to the ERA by 30 September each year. This is the second annual safety report and covers the period 1 Jan 2007 - 31 Dec 2007.
This is the fifth annual assessment and covers the financial year from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008. It follows monitoring and analysis by ORR of Network Rail’s performance throughout the year and covers health and safety; management of the condition of the network and its impact on train performance; progress with major investment projects; expenditure and efficiency; and forward planning and train operations.
ORR comments on a positive set of indicators which show that train punctuality has exceeded 90% - its best level for more than 10 years. But, the regulator also highlights that Network Rail will need to reduce by more than a third the disruption caused to passengers by engineering work.
Investors in People