Office of Rail and Road September 2024 newsletter
30 August 2024
Hello and welcome to the September newsletter
Shortly after our last newsletter, and our annual Year in Rail event in July, our focus shifted to highways with the publication of both our Annual Assessment and also our investigation into National Highways compliance with its licence and delivery of RIS2.
Our Annual Assessment considers how National Highways has progressed over the twelve months to April 2024 against the targets that Government sets out for it in the second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2).
This year, we found that whilst National Highways is meeting a number of targets, there is a danger of the company missing key performance indicators that it must achieve by next March – including average delay, the timeliness and accuracy of roadworks information, and the number of people killed or seriously injured on the strategic road network.
These targets are not fully in National Highways’ control, but the company must demonstrate that it is doing all it can to positively influence them.
Our Assessment also recognises that the company has had to manage a lot of uncertainty in its portfolio and funding in the last year. Decisions that were held up by the General Election need to be finalised so that the company can adjust its programme and resources accordingly.
We hold National Highways to account throughout the year, continually monitoring their performance – and, due to concerns of performance dipping across a number of targets in RIS2, in February of this year we opened an investigation into their compliance with their licence.
After a thorough evidence gathering session, we deemed National Highways to be out of compliance with its licence in respect to the provision of data and information that ORR may require (licence condition 7.3(e)). Providing appropriate and timely data and information is crucial, as ORR uses it to drive improvements in delivery and performance from the company, in the interests of road users, taxpayers and communities.
National Highways has responded positively to the investigation and has already identified a number of improvements it will make. ORR will continue to engage with the company as it finalises and implements its improvement plan, to bring it back into compliance with its licence and to address the issues and concerns identified in the investigation.
Rachel Gittens
Deputy Director, Highways
Top stories
New research highlights a need for a greater focus on passenger welfare when trains are stranded
ORR and Transport Focus, the passenger watchdog, jointly commissioned research examining the passenger experience in stranded train incidents.
Specific recommendations to industry include that recovery plans need to be created and put in more quickly when stranding incidents happen, particularly where there is no power to a train, and there needs to be greater support for onward journeys after passengers have been evacuated from a train.
ORR has already asked rail companies for assurance that simulation exercises involving stranded trains form part of emergency planning arrangements. ORR and Transport Focus will bring together the rail operators and Network Rail later in 2024 to follow up on how the recommendations are being followed through to create improvements and ensure these are consistently applied.
Annual report on HS1 Limited Cites Improvements
On 30th July we published our annual assessment of the regulated aspects of HS1 Ltd’s operational and financial performance for the financial year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which was the fourth year of Control Period 3 (CP3, which runs from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2025).
We were pleased to see improvements on workforce safety and availability of lifts and escalators at stations.
ORR’s work continues through our periodic review (PR24) to ensure HS1 is in the best place for the start of its next control period in April 2025.
Monitoring Open Access
ORR’s report on Monitoring Open Access, published at the end of July provides an update to our ongoing oversight monitoring of open access passenger services on the Great Britain rail network. The report looks at punctuality, cancellations and complaints across open access passenger services, compares post pandemic recovery of open access and contracted operators, and looks at challenges the operators face.
Update to Managing Rail Staff Fatigue Guidance
ORR has published updated guidance on managing rail staff fatigue, following a consultation earlier this year. The guidance, which updates that published in 2012, provides helpful direction on the best approach to manage worker fatigue.
Update on Safety Crowding Position Statement
We recently reviewed our Health and Safety Crowding Position Statement, which was last updated five years ago. This document explains ORR’s public position on crowding on trains, at train stations (including on the platform and at the interface between platform and train) and our expectations of train operators, station operators and passengers in relation to crowding.
Holding National Highways to account: policy consultation
The National Highways Holding to Account policy consultation seeks views on proposals to refresh the existing policy by:
- ensuring that the content of the document is appropriately structured to improve clarity;
- being clearer on how we use the holding to account policy; and
- setting out how and when we use our enforcement powers.
The consultation close on 26 September 2024.
Blogs
Richard Hines, HM Chief Inspector of Railways, summarises his first Chief Inspector’s report and his vision for the future having now taken up his new role.
Eryl Marsh, Head of Specialist Inspection in the Safety Directorate, explains ORR’s role in worker fatigue guidance.
Statistics
We have published the following statistics:
- Passenger satisfaction with complaints handling – April 2023 to March 2024
- Passenger rail performance: Cancellations data – 23 June 2024 to 20 July 2024
