Open access operators for rail services

What is open access?

Open access train services are services which are operated on a commercial basis by private companies. They often compete with train operators which hold government contracts to operate train services.

Currently, there are five open access operators operating passenger train services on the rail network in Great Britain, including Lumo, Grand Central and Hull Trains.

Almost all rail freight services are also open access, with the exception of services operated by Direct Rail Services (DRS).

Following the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 receiving Royal Assent in November 2024, all passenger train operators with contracts with the Department for Transport (DfT) will be nationalised. This means that open access operators might take demand (and revenue) from publicly-owned train operators.

However, the government has said that there will be a continued role for open access operators where they can add value and capacity to the network. It has also said there will be a statutory duty for Great British Railways (GBR) to promote the use of rail freight. The government’s Railways Bill would create GBR to combine management of the network and the delivery of passenger services into a single public body.

Approval process for open access

An open access operator must have a track access agreement with the rail infrastructure manager Network Rail which has been approved by the regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).The approval process is set out in the ORR guidance Open access guidance: Making a track access application and ORR decision making.

When determining whether to approve an open access application, the ORR applies a test called the ‘not primarily abstractive’ (NPA) test. This sets out that it would not expect to approve an open access application unless it forecasts that it would generate at least 30p of new revenue for every £1 that it takes (“abstracts”) from existing operators’ revenue.

Government policy on open access operators

On 6 January 2025, the Transport Secretary wrote to the ORR setting out their expectations for how open access will operate alongside a publicly owned railway. This letter highlighted some benefits of open access operations, including opening up new markets, driving innovation and offering choice to passengers.

The ORR has a number of statutory duties, including promoting competition in the provision of railway services for the benefit of users of railway services. These also include having regard to the financial position of the DfT, any guidance given to the ORR by the Transport Secretary, and the interests of those providing railway services, the funders and the general public.

While it did not change the ORR’s statutory duties, the Transport Secretary’s letter identified two areas they would like the ORR to give additional weight to when making decisions:

• impact on taxpayers
• impact on network capacity

Performance of open access operators

Open access services currently account for a small proportion of the total passenger market. In 2022/23 domestic open access passenger services (the three long distance operators Grand Central, Hull Trains, and Lumo, together with Heathrow Express) accounted for 0.6% of total passenger journeys and 2.4% of passenger operator revenues.

Punctuality and reliability

Using the Public Performance Measure (PPM), 85% of trains in Great Britain were punctual (early or less than 5/10 minutes after the scheduled arrival time) at their final destination in year to September 2024. Grand Central was at 71%, Lumo at 75%, Hull Trains at 80% and Heathrow Express at 86%.

Source: ORR, Passenger rail performance, Table 3113 - Public Performance Measure by operator and sector

Cancellations

The proportion of trains classified as cancellations in Great Britain in the year to September 2024 was 4.0%. For Grand Central it was 5.0%, Heathrow Express 4.3%, Hull Trains 2.5% and Lumo 2.3%. (Source: ORR, Passenger rail performance, Table 3123 - Trains planned and cancellations by operator and cause)

Freight

In 2023/24, total freight moved was 15,755 million net tonne kilometres and total freight lifted was 69.2 million tonnes.

The chart below shows that of the freight moved, 37% was intermodal maritime (combines two or more different types of transportation), 34% construction, 7% metals and 6% biomass.

Source: ORR, Freight rail usage and performance, Table 1310 – Freight moved by commodity

Freight train kilometres were 31.4 million kilometres. Of which, 32% was for the Freightliner Group, 29% for GB Railfreight and 27% for DB Cargo UK.

The proportion of freight trains cancelled or arriving after 15 minutes was 9.7% in 2023/24. (Source: ORR, Freight rail usage and performance)