A comprehensive plan to address the underlying issues causing poor train reliability and punctuality in Wales & Western England, including some of the UK’s busiest train routes into and out of London Paddington, has been accepted by The Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

Network Rail has responded well to the regulator’s investigation into poor train performance in its Wales & Western region, which had found that Network Rail was not doing all it reasonably could to improve performance for passengers and freight.

Network Rail’s original proposals to improve performance, including its Thames Valley performance improvement plan, did not have sufficient detail, timelines or breadth to deliver sustained improvements across the whole of Wales & Western, so ORR required Network Rail to prepare a more robust plan.

Network Rail, and the Wales & Western region led by Rob Cairns, responded positively and proactively, drafting a comprehensive plan for performance which has now been accepted by the regulator.

ORR will closely monitor the delivery of the plan. Ninety percent of actions are scheduled to be completed by 2026, with many, including conducting exercises to improve the response to stranded trains and changing the region’s governance for greater focus on train punctuality and reliability, to be implemented before the end of the year.

The plan includes nearly 60 individual actions and covers:

Feras Alshaker, Director, Performance and Planning at ORR, said:

“We are pleased with the detailed work Network Rail has done to create a clear, workable plan that should sort out the underlying issues and deliver sustained improvement for passengers -passenger train performance in the Wales & Western region has been letting customers down for too long.

“We pushed for this plan to be comprehensive and region-wide, and it is. We will be watching to make sure Network Rail delivers on its promises to passengers.”