Transport Insights

I’ve been reading the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) Annual assessment of Network Rail 2024 to 2025 alongside the ORR’s press release on that and other reports on the rail industry and it seems as if the ORR is trying to spare the government’s blushes.

The annual assessment, which is the ORR’s review of Network Rail’s performance during the first year of the five-year control period 7 (CP7), says up front:

As we noted in our final determination for CP7, funding is constrained, reflecting wider fiscal conditions. In planning for this control period Network Rail has had to make choices about how expenditure should be prioritised to deliver best value for the railway now and in the future. Constrained funding means that Network Rail will be spending less on renewals and more on life-extending repairs and maintenance in CP7 than in CP6. As such, Network Rail forecasts a small reduction in the residual life of its assets, which will require effective risk management activities to be identified and implemented.

As a result our monitoring of Network Rail for this control period is focussed on these risks, which if not effectively managed could result in a deterioration of train service performance in the latter part of the control period, will make delivering train performance very challenging for Great British Railways in the next funding period, and will lead to inefficient spend on infrastructure in the future.

The closest the press release comes to addressing this is an opaque quote from chief executive John Larkinson:

“Overall Network Rail has performed well in a tight financial environment, but it will need to focus relentlessly on every aspect of how it plans and delivers, because there is little margin for error in its regulatory settlement.”

Reflecting the report, the press release notes that “punctuality remained largely stable… and Network Rail reduced delays it causes to train services” and that cancellations have reached record highs, with train operator cancellations the dominant factor.

And the ORR is never shy about claiming credit:

ORR’s annual safety assessment also notes Network Rail has made good progress after ORR raised concerns about its management of structures, by taking action to address overdue structure assessments as required by ORR in an intervention earlier this year.