Hello, and welcome to June’s newsletter.
This year marks a decade since roads reform transformed how the strategic road network in England (SRN) is funded and held accountable.
The 2015 Infrastructure Act ushered in National Highways as the strategic highways company; multi-year road investment strategies (RIS); Transport Focus as the watchdog; and ORR, with regulatory powers to hold National Highways to account in meeting its targets on behalf of road users, communities and taxpayers.
I’ve been reflecting on a decade working for better highways. Over the last 10 years this framework has delivered significant benefits: over £3.5bn in efficiency savings, the number of people harmed driving on the SRN reduced by 39% compared to the 2005-2009 average – the fewest KSI casualties ever recorded, excluding the pandemic, and long-term funding certainty which has allowed National Highways to commit to larger and more complex programme of renewals.
I also participated on a panel at the recent highways and roads trade show Traffex, to discuss delivering for the strategic road network in light of the government’s spending review. It was great to discuss ORR’s role in setting the RIS, the benefits of long-term funding certainty to enable growth and boost innovation, and what the regulation of future technologies for the SRN could look like.
Meanwhile the process of rail reform continues apace, and my colleagues in our rail safety team have been playing their part. On Sunday May 25th, Southwestern Railway became the first service to be nationalised under the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024, and ORR certified Southwestern’s safety management systems in light of their change in ownership.
Finally, our rail consumer team have made two significant interventions this month on behalf of disabled passengers. ORR has proposed that when passenger assistance fails, compensation should be assessed on a case by case basis, rather than based on the price of the purchased ticket. We have also outlined improvements that should be made to improve the provision of passenger assistance.
Summer is fast approaching, which means publishing our annual assessments, which we expect to release for National Highways and Network Rail in the middle of July, along with our Consumer and Health & Safety annual reports.
Rachel Gittens
Deputy Director, Strategic Road Network
Top stories
Review of Accessible Travel Policy (ATP) Guidance requirements on redress
We have written to industry and stakeholders to advise that we plan to review the redress requirements set out in section A8 of our ATP Guidance to ensure that the requirements create an appropriate enabling framework for disabled people to access redress where booked assistance fails.
We have just published our consultation today (Friday, May 30th) and seek views on amending the ATP Guidance to require operators to always consider redress claims on a case-by-case basis. Views are welcome by 11 July 2025
We continue to consider that it is not appropriate for ORR to provide guidance on the levels of financial compensation that may form part of any redress. Following consideration of responses to the consultation we intend to publish a decision in due course.
New ORR study on how train operators handle passenger assistance
As part of our work to improve the reliability of assistance for those passengers who need it, we published a new study on 15 May from reviewing first-hand how handover procedures work at five busy stations. ORR’s Consumer team found that while some of the technology that operators are using has proved effective, more can be done to streamline communications and make smarter, better use of the data and tech insights available to secure better outcomes for passengers.
Work on London St Pancras High Speed
We regulate the London St Pancras High Speed route and station leases at St Pancras. We are currently consulting on how we do this, as part of our work to reduce the complexity and burden of regulation, and commitment to cut administrative costs for business by 25% by the end of the current UK Parliament. Views are welcomed by June 30th.
We have also published our response to London St Pancras High Speed’s proposed Network Statement amendments.
A range of visits
As a national regulator, we want to ensure that our activities reflect our responsibilities, and as such we often travel across the country to meet stakeholders. Our Director of Railway Safety, Richard Hines, was pleased to join the Secretary of State and other key stakeholders in Derby, the future home of Great British Railways, to mark the opening up of train driver licensing to 18 and 19 year olds, reflecting our responsibilities in this area.
And later in May, our Board met in Cardiff. Thank you to all of those who joined our stakeholder dinner there.
The Board also had a hugely informative visit to the Core Valley Lines (CVL), viewing progress at the brand new Taff’s Well depot (pictured) where they learnt more about the very successful partnership in the CVL modernisation between Transport for Wales and principal contractor Amey Infrastructure Wales.
The Board was also very interested to learn about the smart electrification of the line, described as a ‘global first’ where instead of electrifying the entire 170km route, sections with obstructions are left unelectrified and the trains switch to battery or diesel in these zones
In a separate visit, members of our team also welcomed the opportunity to undertake a behind the scenes tour of Bristol Temple Meads.
Statistics
In May we published the following statistics:
