ORR’s critical role in railway safety and efficiency

Christian Wolmar asks: “What is the point of the ORR?” ( RAIL 838). Yet in the same article he praises the £48 billion announced on October 12 as “good news for the railway, and indeed for passengers”.

Has he conveniently overlooked ORR’s role in providing independent advice on the Statement of Funds Available (SoFA) to governments ahead of their decisions, and their trust in our assurance role on Network Rail’s efficient spend of it?

The shift in focus on maintenance and renewals was announced by the Secretary of State in July following advice from the ORR in February, when we said that: “There needs to be a significant increase in the volume of renewals undertaken in CP6, to reverse the impact of the deferrals that have taken place in CP5, meet the pressures of growing traffic and address the condition of long-lived assets.”

Mr Wolmar also raises the important question of Network Rail’s efficiency. The Secretary of State delayed the SoFA in July, which allowed time for ORR to provide additional analysis on that before the Government decided on the funding.

Over the past three months, we have worked closely with Government, Network Rail, train operating companies and the supply chain through the commissioning of independent reports, consultation and seminars to understand better the causes of inefficiency in recent years. From here on, we will scrutinise NR’s plans for CP6 and challenge them to improve efficiency from the start.

In doing this we are building our regulation on Network Rail’s route devolution. We will be assessing their route plans and setting efficient expenditure levels for each route. This new approach will produce better local decision making and accountability, which in turn will drive efficiency.

And, of course, we will also be continuing our separate vital roles in regulating health and safety, fair competition, access decisions and consumer protection. Stephen Glaister, Chairman, Office of Rail and Road