Rail passengers

Welcome to the June edition of our newsletter, (last month we didn’t send one due to the period before the general election).

By John Gillespie, Deputy Director of Policy, Strategy and Planning, Railway Safety.

Our newly-published Business Plan sets out our priorities for the next year. We have listened to feedback and contributions from the industry, consumer representative groups and from Network Rail and Highways England, and this is reflected in our priorities and programme of work for 2017.

Late last month the ORR Board headed to Cardiff, where we met some of you from Wales and Western England. At Newport Docks we heard about the challenges for rail freight and road access, and the implications for the planned M4 diversion.

Daniel Brown, Director of Strategy and Policy, blogs about how we work with our French counterparts to regulate the Channel Tunnel.

We begin this month’s edition of our newsletter with the announcement that Joanna Whittington has been confirmed in her appointment as Chief Executive Officer at ORR following an open public competition. The appointment is effective immediately.

Happy New Year to you all. Protecting the interests of rail and road users, now and in the future, is at the heart of what we do at ORR.

By Joanna Whittington, CEO.

Welcome to the second edition of our monthly stakeholder newsletter, as we keep you up to date with the latest news from the Office of Rail and Road.