The Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) annual assessment, published as the railway prepares for its biggest structural change in a generation, has found real progress on efficiency and fewer train cancellations. But with inflationary pressures driving a cut in renewals to 83% of the original plan in England & Wales, the rail regulator finds that Network Rail needs to provide further evidence of how it is revising its plans to protect the safety and condition of Britain’s ageing railway infrastructure.
Fewer passenger and freight train services were cancelled in the year to March 2026, but reduced work to renew the railway in the coming years means greater detail and focus on maintenance plans is required to secure improved performance outcomes in the long term, the ORR said today in its annual assessment of Network Rail.
Network-wide, passenger train cancellations reduced to 3.5% in the year to March 2026 from 4.1% in the previous year. Freight cancellations were 0.5 percentage points lower (better) and met the year-end target. Reliability improvements have primarily been driven by a reduction in traincrew cancellations, but Network Rail has an important role in minimising cancellations related to whole system reliability, including through the management of rail infrastructure. Train punctually remained broadly stable, with 84.1% of services arriving within three minutes of their scheduled time between April 2025 and March 2026.
Targeted interventions by ORR have contributed to this improved train service performance. ORR formally closed out its period of enhanced monitoring following its investigation into Network Rail’s Wales & Western region earlier this year. ORR also challenged Network Rail’s delivery of train performance in its Eastern region and the region responded by delivering an improvement plan which is starting to show signs of impact.
ORR’s annual assessment shows that Network Rail exceeded its efficiency target for the second year running. The company delivered £614 million of efficiencies in the latest year, and is now forecasting to deliver £4.1 billion of efficiencies over control period 7 (which runs from April 2024 to March 2029), above its £3.9 billion target.
However, financial pressures, largely from high inflation, have led Network Rail to reduce the number of assets, such as track, tunnels and bridges, that it intends to renew.
Britain’s railway remains one of the safest in Europe and it is important that Network Rail demonstrates how it will protect safety and performance as renewals are reduced, and ORR’s monitoring in this area is a key focus in the coming year.
Scotland
Network Rail Scotland is broadly delivering to its CP7 plan and, unlike England & Wales, has not had to reduce renewals to mitigate inflationary pressures. Good progress has been made on cancellations, which fell to 2.1%, better than the 2.3% target. However, at the end of year two of CP7 the Scotland Train Performance Measure was 89.8%. Network Rail Scotland and ScotRail are working towards achieving 92.5% on this measure by year four of CP7, but ORR considers this to be at risk.
Graham Richards, director, planning and performance, said: “Fewer cancellations is good news for passengers and freight customers. And £614 million of efficiencies this year is good news for taxpayers. But we know there is still much more to be done through Network Rail working ever more closely with train operators to deliver better whole-industry outcomes.
“If we’re to continue to protect and improve future train performance, we must carefully manage our ageing railway infrastructure. We recognise that in a constrained funding environment there are no easy answers, which is why we have challenged Network Rail to provide better evidence of how it will mitigate the effects of declining asset condition on train safety and performance outcomes.”
Image credit: ORR
