Land disposal

ORR regulates Network Rail’s land disposals through condition 7 of its network licence. Our objective is to protect land that may be required for future development of the railway network and to prevent the disposal of that land against the public interest. Accordingly, Network Rail must seek our consent for any disposal not covered by a general consent.

Network Rail’s obligations are set out in the document Land Disposal by Network Rail: The regulatory arrangements, April 2013 ( 438 Kb).

Network Rail's role in land disposal

When Network Rail refers a disposal to us for consent, it must provide a description of the proposals plus evidence of stakeholders’ views and final positions together with any commentary on them.

For every submission we expect Network Rail to consult the stakeholders set out below, depending on the geographical location of the proposed disposal. It is expected that passenger representative organisations will represent the overall comments or views of individuals using the railways when giving their views to Network Rail.

Parties that must be consulted:

• Department for Transport / Transport Scotland / Scottish Council for Development & Industry / Welsh Government
• Association of Train Operating Companies
• Rail Freight Group and Freight Transport Association
• Train operating companies (passenger and freight)
• Local authorities
• Passenger Transport Authorities and Passenger Transport Executives
• Transport for London
• Port and airport authorities
• British Transport Police
• Passenger Focus / London TravelWatch

We will issue a decision, either granting or refusing consent within three months of the receipt of the application.

Latest land disposals

Details of current land disposal cases and previous decisions are available from our current land disposal cases page.

Last updated: April 2013

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