Advertise on podcast: Rail and Road Pod

The rail industry often requires workers to undertake safety-critical duties in remote and isolated locations, often during unsociable hours, and operating in these environments can present many challenges for them, including securing access to appropriate welfare facilities, such as toilets. In the latest episode of the Rail and Road Pod, Richard Hines, our HM chief inspector of railways, explains what tangible improvements the rail regulator wants to see, including working towards a culture where sharing welfare facilities becomes the norm. And Sally Griffiths, from RSSB, talks about how her organisation has worked to tackle the shortage of welfare facilities for freight drivers by driving standards, research and collaboration in this area.

ORR's duties are wide-ranging, and its engineers are integral to the work carried out across both rail and road.  This can include evaluating infrastructure projects in the way they are managed, reviewing designs, and ensuring compliance with regulations. To mark the recent International Women in Engineering Day, Cherry Lam, Jenny Hamilton, Morwenna Corry and Rachel McDonnell spoke about why they chose to become engineers and their varied work for ORR.

We speak to Jennifer Genevieve, deputy director in our economics, finance and markets team, and Sarah Shore, deputy director in our railway safety team to discuss how the rail industry determines what is "reasonably practicable" when making safety-related decisions. This episode sheds light on ORR's ongoing review and its impact on the industry.

We speak to Rachel Gittens, Deputy Director for Strategic Road Network, and Iain Ritchie, Head of Safety and Performance, to learn more about ORR's recent annual assessment and investigation of National Highways. 

In this episode we join a conversation between Ian Prosser CBE, who recently retired as Chief Inspector of Railways, and his successor Richard Hines.    Ian takes a look back at the successes and challenges during his 15 years in the role and offers advice to Richard, who also shares what he expects to achieve in his new role.

In this podcast Jacqui Russell, the head of our Consumer team, and Matt Westlake, who leads on accessibility matters, will both provide an insight into the recent work of their team who review the many aspects of the rail passenger experience. They also look ahead to a busy 2024. And Dr Ralitsa Hiteva talks about the value of her involvement with ORR's Consumer Expert Panel.

New, major, upgraded or renewed infrastructure and rolling stock applicants have to follow a framework and seek an authorisation from the ORR before placing the infrastructure or rolling stock into service. In this podcast we'll learn about the path to applying for authorisation and the role the ORR plays to help the applicants, such as those who oversaw the upgraded Gatwick Airport and Castleford stations, East Linton and Brent Cross West, London's newest mainline station.

Highways UK brings together the people responsible for managing, maintaining, and future-proofing the nation's road networks.  Over the course of the two-day event our roads team discussed areas including our Annual Assessment of National Highways and the next Road Investment Strategy, RIS3.  In this podcast we catch up with: Feras Alshaker, ORR director of planning and performanceNick Harris, chief executive officer of National Highways, who manage England's motorways and A-roads   Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, the independent watchdog for transport usersSneha Patel, ORR deputy director for roads  

In this episode, we take a look at the journey taken by a trainee inspector of railways at the Office of Rail and Road. We speak to two current trainee inspectors, an ORR inspector who explains what is needed to make the grade and Ian Prosser, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Railways, gives his advice to those taking their first steps. Find out more about our safety work. Contact us on [email protected].

In this episode, we take a look at the safety work we do in the heritage sector. Simon Barber, our principal inspector of heritage, and Richard Hines, our deputy chief inspector of non-mainline, discuss the frequent occurrences of working-at-height accidents, how the sector can benefit from the Risk Management Maturity Model, co-operation with the Heritage Railway Association and what steps the sector needs to take in order to improve safety.    Find out more about the ORR's heritage railways work. Contact us on [email protected].

In this episode, Chief Executive, John Larkinson discusses ORR's role in rail reform. Recorded at the Accelerate Rail event in London on 21 March, John explains how rail reform and the implementation of Great British Railways will lead to significant change at ORR.  He goes on to describe how things will need to be done differently because of a much bigger role for the organisation. 

In this episode we discuss the Railway Work, Life & Death project, which takes a look back at railway worker accidents in Britain and Ireland from the late 1880s to 1939.  We're joined by Dr Mike Esbester, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Portsmouth.   The Office of Rail and Road has been pleased to be able to help the project, which is a joint initiative between the University of Portsmouth, the National Railway Museum and the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick.  Paul Wilkinson, knowledge project lead in ORR's Railway Safety Directorate also joins the discussion. We explore some historic incidents, how safety has developed as a result, and how our archives continue to provide valuable insights to our colleagues in His Majesty's Railway Inspectorate. 

In this episode we're out and about at the Highways UK event which took place at the NEC in Birmingham. We hear from John Larkinson, Chief Executive of ORR, Anthony Smith, Chief Executive, Transport Focus, and Nick Harris, Chief Executive, National Highways. They discussed smart motorways as part of a panel discussion during the event.  Also from ORR, you'll hear from Sneha Patel, Deputy Director of the Highways Team and Harry Garnham, Head of Roads Performance who share their thoughts on the event and some of our areas of focus at the moment.  Find out more about our work holding National Highways to account at: https://www.orr.gov.uk/monitoring-and-regulation/roads-monitoring/holding-national-highways-to-account

As Britain's rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road plays a vital role in improving the passenger experience in compensation, passenger information and accessibility. In this episode, the Rail and Road Pod takes a closer look at some of the work of its consumer team.   The first half of this episode focuses on ORR's role in improving accessibility on the rail network by holding operators to account through Accessible Travel Policies, promoting accessibility and reducing barriers to travel. We also look at how improvements are being made in passenger information, with all train operators agreeing to sign up to new information pledges for passengers. We finish by taking a look at how ORR is improving access to delay compensation, and how it monitors train and station operators against the standards set out in a new licence condition that was introduced in April 2022.    Find out more about the ORR's passenger information work at https://www.orr.gov.uk/monitoring-regulation/rail/passengers/information/passenger-information-licence-conditions