This article examines the Railways Bill’s reforms to the ORR’s regulatory, monitoring and enforcement powers, including a new appeals regime and a re-balanced enforcement model.

Published: 22 April 2026
Authors: Rubina Zaidi

The Railways Bill proposes the most significant shift in the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) regulatory, monitoring and enforcement powers in a generation. This article examines how the reforms will reshape the ORR’s role, including a new appeals jurisdiction and a re‑balanced enforcement model.

What matters

In addition to helping create a new, publicly owned company, Great British Railways (GBR) (to replace Network Rail), the Railways Bill (the Bill) (currently at the Report stage in the House of Commons)will substantially reshape the regulatory remit of the ORR. The ORR will gain a broader monitoring function over GBR’s statutory activities, enforce a new GBR licence, and operate a judicial‑review‑style appeals body for GBR’s decisions on access, capacity, charging and timetabling.

What matters next

Rail operators, freight companies, retailers and other network users should prepare for a regulatory landscape in which regulatory scrutiny increases, and enforcement tools become more targeted. Stakeholders should also anticipate forthcoming ORR and Department for Transport consultations on GBR’s draft licence, the retail code of practice and the new statutory appeals framework.

The ORR’s expanded monitoring remit

The Bill places the ORR at the centre of the reformed rail system. The ORR will assume a broader monitoring and reporting role covering the full scope of GBR’s activities including over its managing, operating and renewing the network; running most passenger services in England; setting fares, selling tickets and providing systems and services relating to the operation of passenger services.

Unlike today’s model, the ORR’s monitoring, which should be targeted, proportionate and outcomes focused, will focus on GBR’s performance of its statutory functions, assessed against GBR’s business plan and informed by Secretary of State guidance. The ORR may investigate issues and raise them with GBR and escalate concerns to the Secretary of State, who makes decisions on action. Importantly, the ORR will not hold enforcement powers in relation to its statutory monitoring role, but its monitoring will play a key role in triggering enforcement action and will support accountability to the Secretary of State where concerns arise.

This separation between monitoring and enforcement places the ORR as an “independent assessor” andexpert advisor to the Secretary of State.

A new, streamlined GBR licence with targeted enforcement powers

A new single GBR licence will be issued by the Secretary of State, with the ORR responsible for monitoring and enforcement. The licence is expected to be narrower and more outcomes‑focused than Network Rail’s current licence.

Key licence changes include:

• a move away from routine use of financial penalties for GBR licence breaches. Enforcement will instead revolve around investigations, early resolution and taking enforcement actionwhere appropriate
• some areas where ORR previously exercised enforcement powers, such as train service performance, will fall outside GBR’s licence and into the monitoring sphere instead
• the Government may include a focused licence condition covering long‑term infrastructure asset stewardship, so the ORR can address the long-term risk of asset deterioration through effective, proportionate enforcement action.

With GBR assuming responsibility for central retail systems and absorbing the ticket‑retailing functions of multiple operators, the new licence will require GBR to:

• support an open and competitive retail market
• treat independent ticket retailers fairly
• comply with a new code of practice which will govern how GBR manages retail systems.

The ORR will enforce the code of practice, with non‑GBR retailers able to raise GBR decisions or actions directly with the ORR. Where the ORR finds non‑compliance, it will have powers to issue binding orders requiring corrective action.

Other key changes introduced by the Bill

A new passenger watchdog (evolving from Transport Focus) will take on the ORR’s current roles relating to passenger information, accessible travel, complaints, delay compensation and sponsorship of the Rail Ombudsman.

The watchdog will:

• set industry standards through guidance and codes
• monitor compliance
• refer concerns to the ORR for enforcement action.

The ORR will continue to enforce licence conditions in these areas and retain its consumer law powers, currently used, for example, to improve ticket fee transparency.

Reforms to access contracts is a further key reform, with the reduction of the ORR’s role in approving or directing access contracts for the network representing one of the most profound shifts for the industry. Under the new model:

• GBR will determine access to the network
• GBR will set access charges and performance schemes
• GBR will issue key policy documents including the Access and Use Policy (AUP) and the infrastructure capacity plan.

Instead, ORR becomes the appeals body for third parties challenging GBR’s decisions on capacity allocation, access and charging.

Under the proposed judicial‑review‑style appeals regime, it appears thatappeals will be assessed according to principles similar to those applied by the High Court of England and Wales on judicial review or the supervisory jurisdiction of the Court of Session in Scotland. Grounds include:

• illegality
• procedural unfairness
• irrationality
• legitimate expectation.

This marks a significant change. The ORR is not re‑making decisions on the merits but assessing the legality and fairness of GBR’s decisions.

If an appeal is upheld, the ORR may:

• quash GBR’s decision
• order GBR to reconsider the matter with directions on how it should be reconsidered
• substitute its own decision if there has been an error of law and only one lawful decision was possible.

The ORR’s developing appeals policy envisages:

• defined appeal windows (some may be as short as five working days)
• a standardised, fast‑paced process
• publication of appeals and decisions (subject to redaction).

Stakeholders will need to adapt internal governance and evidence‑gathering accordingly but it should be noted that, at present, the precise scope, procedure and statutory wording of the appeals regime are subject to policy development and regulations.

ORR’s continuing areas of enforcement

Several areas of the ORR’s remit remain unchanged, including:

• Health and Safety regulation across the mainline network, London Underground, trams, light rail and heritage rail
• Consumer and Competition law powers (concurrent with the CMA)
• production of rail statistics
• regulation of roads, non‑GBR networks, including HS1, Core Valley Lines and the Channel Tunnel
• train driver licensing
• station, network and service closure ratifications
• regulatory functions in Northern Ireland.

This continuity ensures that ORR retains core regulatory authority in safety, competition, consumer protection and non‑GBR infrastructure oversight.

What the changes mean for industry

Dutyholders should recognise that the reforms do not reduce regulatory scrutiny but re‑allocate and enhance it:

• monitoring becomes more expansive and more structured
• enforcement becomes more targeted and licence‑driven
• appeals become a key mechanism for challenging GBR decisions
• retail oversight and data transparency will intensify
• passenger standards will be shaped by the new watchdog but enforced by the ORR.

Stakeholders should plan early for this shift, given the complexity of the transition and the number of interdependent regulatory instruments still to be published.

And finally...

We will publish further articles and post information on LinkedIn as the Bill and its reforms progress.