The Office of Rail and Road has revealed details of how it will cope with railway reforms, and is inviting views before a formal consultation is launched later this year.

The creation of Great British Railways will end the need for contracted National Rail operators to have individual licences, but there still be around 50 others, holding about 90 licences between them.

GBR will have a single licence, but other licence holders will include the devolved operators in Scotland and Wales, passenger and freight open access operators.

The ORR said it was seeking to ensure that the existing licences are updated and ready for GBR and rail reform. Most of the changes are likely to involve consumer standards and systems which affect the whole industry, in a bid to provide accountability.

The ORR will continue to be responsible for monitoring and enforcing all railway licences.

Updates to licences are also likely to be necessary to reflect the Passenger Watchdog’s new role setting consumer standards in areas such as passenger information, accessibility and complaints, and to ensure these standards are binding on all operators, including GBR.

The ORR’s director of strategy and reform Stephanie Tobyn said: ‘This is part of ORR playing its role in getting the rail industry ready for GBR day one.

‘Licences may sound technical, but they set out the fundamental principles and processes through which passenger, freight and station operators work and will continue to be essential for us to hold these bodies to account on behalf of passengers and freight customers.’

The formal policy consultation is planned for the autumn, when it will be aligned with the Department for Transport’s consultation on the GBR licence, so that stakeholders can consider both sets of proposals together.

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