The Office of Rail and Road has told Network Rail to take four actions immediately to improve train services for passengers following an investigation which found failings in the company’s general management of timetable changes.

This has contributed to the massive disruption in May for many passengers around the UK.

ORR’s investigation into the planning capability of Network Rail has found that they did not implement the best practice in this role. This is evidenced by the need to rewrite the May 2018 timetable seven weeks after it sent the draft to the industry in November 2017.

This meant the knock-on effect was that the timetable could not be finalised 12 weeks in advanced.

The Office of Rail and Road started its investigation in February 2018 into why the timetables could not be finalised 12 weeks in advanced. During the investigation, it came clear that the failings go beyond Network Rail, which has lead to the industry-wide inquiry, which has been announced by the Secretary of State, read more on this announcement here. The ORR will publish its findings in the Autumn.

The failings have been identified and now the ORR require Network Rail to take specific actions to provide reassurance around the December 2018 and May 2019 timetables, this is in order to boost Network Rail’s timetabling capability.

Actions required

• The first priority is the successful implementation of the December 2018 timetable.
  • Action: Network Rail must provide a report to the ORR by the 31st August 2018 to demonstrate how it is running an efficient and effective process of revising the timetables. The ORR will then assess the progress and report on it.
• The revision of the December 2018 timetable means it will take longer to recover the normal timescales, but it is essential to establish this process.
  • Action: Network Rail will revise its recovery plan by 31st August 2018 to get timetables back to being agreed 12 weeks in advance, known as T-12. They will also publicly report on their progress. This report will include details of late changes being considered and the reasons for this.
• Network Rail’s resources were and still are, put under pressure with the increased scale of both short and long-term planning. Resourcing and capability of both Network Rail and industry planning teams are a risk to the delivery of future timetables.
  • Action: Network Rail will accelerate progress on plans approved by the ORR to strengthen their capability and resources, this includes specific indicates against which the ORR will report on Network Rails progress. Network Rail will provide the ORR with the first draft by the 17th September 2018.
• There is a need for better coordination between the part of Network Rail carrying our infrastructure projects and the system operator, who makes the timetables.
  • Action: Network Rail need to speed up decisions on structural reform and provide ORR with a draft plan by the 30th September 2018.

What did the officials say?

John Larkinson, ORR’s Director, Railway Markets and Economics, said:

“Network Rail’s failings in the run up to the May timetable led to massive disruption, uncertainty and inconvenience to passengers.

“Network Rail has acted to bring the industry together to address timetabling issues but more and faster change is needed to provide assurance to passengers. That is why we have set out these actions designed to improve capability within Network Rail.

“Our ongoing broader Inquiry is looking at the role of the whole industry in the May timetabling problems and this may lead to further recommendations.”

Jo Kaye, managing director, System Operator, Network Rail, said:

“We accept the findings of the ORR investigation into why timetables weren’t finalised 12 weeks in advance. It’s clear from the ORR’s investigation that the issues with timetabling go much further than Network Rail, and we welcome and look forward to the industry-wide inquiry. We remain truly sorry for the part we played in the process that caused disruption for so many people and we have learned lessons to make sure it is not repeated.

“We are already putting the ORR’s required plan into action including establishing new joint working arrangements with train operators to support development of the timetables for December 2018 and May 2019.”

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