UK Rail Industry Makes Progress on Cost-Effective Safety Decisions

The UK rail industry has taken steps to improve how it assesses health and safety measures, following recommendations from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

The guidance, developed jointly with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and Network Rail, aims to ensure that safety decisions are based on evidence and consistent evaluation of costs and benefits.

Since the recommendations were published in March 2025:

• Network Rail has introduced internal guidance and a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) tool, with further plans to embed these across the organisation
• RSSB has updated its CBA guidance, created training materials through the Taking Safe Decisions programme, and engaged over 250 participants from 50 organisations
• ORR has refreshed inspector training on risk assessment and CBA, strengthened its own capability, and shared its health and safety priorities with funders to support planning
• Senior-level discussions between ORR and Network Rail continue to address current and emerging safety issues and future investment planning

Will Godfrey, ORR’s Director of Economics, Finance and Markets, said:

Better safety decision making will improve both the safety of our railway and maintain good value for money. As the joint economic and safety regulator, we can play a key role by working across both aspects of regulation to ensure the right outcome.

ORR will now monitor the uptake and impact of the new guidance and training over the coming months, ahead of a final review in March 2026. The regulator is also exploring how the approach could be applied to heritage and metro rail operations.