Britain’s rail industry must maintain clear accountability and a “relentless focus” on safety as structural reform gathers pace, the Office of Rail and Road has warned.
In its annual health and safety report for 2025-26, the regulator said the railway continued to operate safely overall, but found that risk management was not yet delivering the level of control and assurance required across all parts of the network.
The report was published only weeks after the fatal passenger train collision at Elstow, near Bedford, in which driver Shaun Burton died and a number of people were injured.
ORR said it remained in contact with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, the industry and other relevant authorities while investigations continued.
Richard Hines, ORR’s HM Chief Inspector of Railways, described the collision as a “sobering reminder” that the consequences of a major rail accident can be severe, despite Britain’s strong overall safety record.
He said: “Safety is never something Britain’s rail industry can take for granted. It has to be protected every day, through the decisions and actions of the people who design, operate and maintain the railway.”
The regulator’s report identifies rail reform, financial pressure and evolving operating models as factors placing greater strain on systems, staff and organisational interfaces.
The transition of passenger operators into public ownership, alongside the creation of Great British Railways, offers an opportunity to simplify accountability and improve the management of shared risks, ORR said. However, the regulator cautioned that changing structures must not weaken controls or blur responsibility.
ORR said it would expect duty holders to demonstrate that safety arrangements remain effective while responsibilities, interfaces and governance structures change.
“Great British Railways is an opportunity to strengthen safety across the network, but change must not weaken protections or blur who is responsible for keeping passengers and workers safe,” Hines said.
Overspeeding remains a major concern
Overspeeding was identified as one of the most significant risks that remains insufficiently controlled.
ORR said previous incidents at junctions on the East Coast Main Line had shown how close trains had come to potentially catastrophic outcomes.
Early progress in tackling the issue had been slow, with limited information sharing, inconsistent approaches and an over-reliance on administrative controls rather than stronger technical solutions.
Following a further East Coast Main Line incident, Hines convened an urgent cross-industry meeting with Network Rail and train operators in December 2025.
The intervention has led to progress in developing joint risk assessments for high-risk junctions, improving collaboration between infrastructure managers and operators, and making better use of data.
However, ORR said subsequent incidents, including one at Cambridge Junction, demonstrated that risk assessments remained inconsistent and arrangements were not yet sufficiently proactive.
“The causes are well understood, yet progress has been too slow,” the report said. “The challenge is not one of knowledge, but of execution and system leadership.”
ORR said industry leaders must now move more decisively from analysis to action, prioritising known high-risk locations and deploying effective controls more quickly. fileciteturn0file0
Trackworker safety under scrutiny
Trackworker safety also remains a central concern.
ORR said there had been a marked reduction in higher-risk red-zone working, with greater use of safer green-zone arrangements. However, serious incidents continued where planned protections were not applied correctly.
The fatality at Radlett in March 2026 involved work being carried out on an open line rather than the protected line.
During the year, 12 high-potential trackworker incidents were recorded. Although the overall number had fallen, ORR said some incidents were more severe, including cases where staff were working on open lines while protection had been established at a different location.
Network Rail has created Safety Task Force 2 to improve the way safe access is planned and delivered. ORR said it would continue targeted inspections, including scrutiny of how Network Rail and its contractors manage work on closed sections of railway.
The regulator also highlighted wider inconsistency in Network Rail’s safety management arrangements. Almost 400 Risk Management Maturity Model assessments found variations between regions and functions, with weaknesses in workload planning, asset management, change management and safe systems of work.
Financial pressure must not create unmanaged risk
The report also reflects growing concern over the impact of financial constraints on infrastructure work.
ORR said financial pressures had affected the delivery of renewals and other planned activity during Control Period 7.
Where work is deferred or reduced, Network Rail must show that the consequences have been properly assessed and that appropriate mitigations are in place.
The regulator said it would continue challenging the company to demonstrate that safety risks arising from changes to maintenance and renewals programmes were being actively controlled.
The report also points to improvements in structures management. More than 1,100 assessments have been completed following earlier concerns over thousands of structures and operational property assets, increasing assurance that structural risks are understood and managed.
However, incidents such as the November 2025 derailment near Shap, where a passenger train struck material from a landslip, demonstrate the continuing importance of drainage, monitoring, maintenance and effective responses to environmental risk.
Level-crossing fatalities rise sharply
ORR recorded a significant increase in level-crossing fatalities, rising from one in 2023-24 to five in 2024-25 and 11 in 2025-26.
Network Rail is progressing measures including miniature stop lights, additional barriers and technologies intended to reduce reliance on crossings at track level.
ORR found that risk-management processes were generally in place, but the quality of assessments, supporting evidence and delivery of improvements varied between regions.
Stronger assurance and more consistent implementation will be required, the regulator said.
Welfare, fatigue and violence against staff
The report calls for renewed momentum on workforce welfare.
Twenty-six organisations have signed the RSSB Welfare Charter, but ORR said progress had become uneven, particularly where facilities need to be shared between operators, infrastructure teams and freight companies.
The regulator will continue examining welfare provision through inspections and industry engagement.
Fatigue management also remains inconsistent. ORR said controls were often reactive and that organisations were not making sufficient use of data to identify emerging fatigue risks before incidents occur.
Violence and harassment against railway staff is also increasing.
Although body-worn cameras, improved reporting and industry guidance are helping, ORR said the issue must be treated as a core health and safety risk rather than solely as a security matter.
Duty holders should have systematic arrangements covering risk assessment, prevention, training and support for staff following incidents.
Enforcement activity continues
ORR issued eight Improvement Notices during 2025-26 and no Prohibition Notices.
It also concluded a prosecution against First Greater Western, which was fined £1 million in October 2025 following the death of a passenger near Twerton in 2018.
The regulator found the operator had delayed producing a written risk assessment and had not implemented all identified controls before the accident.
Looking ahead, ORR has set three priorities: maintaining control of risk through transition, ensuring assurance reflects operational reality rather than paperwork alone, and strengthening leadership of risks that cross organisational boundaries.
Hines said Britain’s railway had repeatedly demonstrated its capacity to learn and improve, but warned that this depended on clear leadership and disciplined delivery.
“A healthy and safe railway is not created by systems alone,” he said. “It is built every day through the judgement, decisions and actions of those who design, operate and maintain it.”
