UK Office of Rail Regulation (ORR)

Opportunities and challenges for the railway - ORR's long-term regulatory statement

Our long-term regulatory statement – ‘Opportunities and Challenges for the Railway’ – discusses how our regulation may develop in line with the changing shape of the industry, and identifies priorities for the growth and sustainability of Britain’s railways.

Railways have been a major success story for the past decade. Passenger demand is at the highest ever and freight numbers are growing. This presents huge opportunities and challenges for us across the industry. These issues need to be discussed if our railways are to remain financially sustainable in the long term.

Our focus is on efficiency, creating incentives to encourage better industry wide collaboration, raising standards for customers and ensuring value for money for taxpayers and funders. Big decisions about investment and services will continue to be taken by government, but as the independent regulator we want to stimulate debate to ensure that stakeholders from right across the spectrum are involved in shaping our railways of the future.

What is certain is that Britain’s railway will, in just a few years’ time, look quite different to the railway that we have today. Governments and other funders have shown great confidence in rail and continue to invest tens of billions of pounds enhancing the mainline network. This investment will change the shape of the railway considerably, and our statement explores some of the effects of this transformation.

Document

ORR's Long-term regulatory statement ( PDF 1.67 Mb)

Published: 15 July 2013

High Speed 1 (HS1) regulation

Regulatory framework
We have responsibilities under the Railways Infrastructure (Access & Management) Regulations 2005 (“the Regulations”) concerning the economic regulation of the HS1 network (HS1). Our functions include the pre-approval of framework agreements and ensuring that HS1 Limited (the infrastructure manager) is provided with incentives to reduce the cost of the provision of infrastructure and access charges. We regulate HS1 Limited through its Concession Agreement and have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ( PDF 108 Kb) with the Secretary of State in respect of our performance of this role.

Our approach to the regulation of the HS1 network was outlined in our Regulatory Statement ( PDF 1709 Kb) and our functions cover the following:

Access regulation

Access charges reviews

HS1 periodic review (PR14)

Network regulation / asset management

Monitoring and reporting

Enforcement

Annual reports
We publish an annual report of HS1 Limited. These reports set out how we consider HS1 Limited has performed and the work that has been done during the year. The report also outlines the work we expect to undertake in the forthcoming year. Read the annual report for:

Annual report on HS1 Ltd 2012-13 ( 331 Kb)

Annual report on HS1 Ltd 2011-12 ( 487 Kb).

Annual report on HS1 Ltd 2010-11 ( 738 Kb).

Further details about HS1 and HS1 Limited, including copies of relevant documentation, are available from the HS1 website.

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