Scrutiny and challenge: that’s what the ORR is for…
A regulator’s job rightly attracts scrutiny, but Christian Wolmar’s article (What is the ORR for? RAIL 857) missed a lot about the role and value of an economic regulator.
For a start, we make decisions on track access and train operator licence applications, industry disputes, infrastructure and rolling stock authorisations, and land disposals - all core industry processes that go under the radar.
Then there’s our consumer role, regulating the passenger-facing conditions in those licences, including our significant work on passenger assist and enforcing consumer law.
Plus, there’s our work as a competition authority. We spoke up strongly last month against the proposed Siemens-Alstom merger - this is a major threat to competition in our signalling and rolling stock markets, and could add significant costs for passengers and taxpayers.
Wolmar seems then to have overlooked our widely used financial and performance data on Network Rail and the whole industry (valued because it is seen to be independent), and the advice we provide to an increasing number of third parties considering investing in the industry.
Then, of course, yes - we regulate Network Rail (incidentally also HS1, and more recently we have started work on the track access aspects of HS2).
Network Rail regulation involves establishing a framework as part of a Periodic Review and monitoring the outcome of that review. It’s well accepted across the industry that Control Period 5 did not work as intended - this is why our Draft Determination for CP6 is taking a very different approach, getting ORR out of the detail and Network Rail closer to its customers, with route level accountability, to improve outcomes for passengers and freight users.
In our recent Monitor, we also published analysis showing that Network Rail is not doing enough to provide assurance that it is ready to deliver efficiently at the start of CP6 - this forward-looking analysis isn’t being done by anyone else.
Our stance on funding and prioritising renewals in CP6 for long-term asset sustainability was supported by Government and is being implemented at route level by Network Rail. This follows our four years of work to force the pace on improvements in asset management, which has been borne out in the improving data on asset reliability. Passengers and taxpayers will lose out without scrutiny and challenge.
John Larkinson, Director, Railway Markets & Economics, ORR