2025 and beyond

Here are a few of the forthcoming highlights from our work in 2025 and beyond. They are grouped under our six strategic business areas to show how we’re focused on helping rail.

Safer rail

Our tool to help plan speed profiles in extreme weather, PRIMA, will continue to develop in 2025. It is already useful for heavy rainfall, and in 2025 we will add extreme winds to its capabilities.

And we’ll work closely with our members to improve maintenance through better use of industry gathered data.

Harmonised rail

In 2025 and beyond, we will enhance system interoperability and efficiency. Our efforts will help create a harmonised and modern rail system. Our work will continue to improve standards. We will address cyber security risks, as well as the safe introduction of battery and hydrogen trains, and digital signalling. We will continue to have a key role in the management of National Technical Specification Notices. We will also support the UK’s role in global rail standards. We will do this through collaboration with the British Standards Institute and the EU Agency for Rail.

Future rail

Train protection systems are designed to prevent collisions or derailments caused by travelling too fast or too far. The main system in use is the Train Protection Warning System (TPWS). This covers about 40% of the network. TPWS has limited effectiveness and does not provide continuous speed supervision. To minimise risks, industry needs to understand the dangers of overspeeding and passing signals at danger. This will address existing gaps in reporting.

The Train Protection Strategy aims to implement comprehensive train protection measures. It will also promote interim improvements ahead of the full deployment of the European Train Control System.

Oversight of this work is through the Vehicle Train Control and Communications, System Interface Committee. We have already engaged with about a dozen industry expert groups. We will continue to do so in 2025.

Healthier rail

In 2025, we will publish the cross-industry report from the 2023 Fatigue Survey. 24 individual company reports have been produced from the survey and delivered in 2024. We expect the survey to yield new insights to help direct the industry fatigue program.

Our industry fatigue groups continue to produce individual work. The freight group are considering how to prioritise and manage the risk highlighted by the ORR’s fatigue factors. The passenger operations group are refreshing fundamental fatigue training packs. The infrastructure group are continuing to investigate features of night working, and alignment with the Network Rail fatigue standard.

Our driver attention and alertness and monitoring research will start to collect data, and we will produce project reports.

Efficient rail

In 2025 we will be formally launching new data insights platforms to increase the ease and usefulness of data analysis. We’ve developed our capabilities in this area. We are no longer automatically dependent on using software created by others. We can build what our members need or interface with other systems as appropriate. We’re also using AI in some places to help catch inconsistencies in a more efficient way. This is all about helping people to identify data conflicts. They can categorise their data more easily. It improves the quality of the data that we aggregate on industry’s behalf.

We’ll be launching insights platforms in two areas in 2025: safety in March, and sustainability later in the year. We’re building on our many years of expertise in safety data and the launch of the Sustainable Rail Blueprint in November 2023.

This will help industry make more use of data. Industry will get better value from the use of our data aggregation. We’ll also be using the data that industry provides to develop decision support tools. This will make a continuous virtuous circle between industry sharing data and the benefits we deliver to help reduce costs and increase performance.

Sustainable rail

The Social Sustainability Working Group identified an opportunity for rail and social housing to collaborate to increase social value. They commissioned a report by the Housing Association Charitable Trust which confirmed this. This highlighted eleven areas of focus. These include topics like understanding the root causes of crime in specific locations near to stations, raising aspirations and providing career opportunities for young people, and regeneration projects for rail and social housing. In 2025 we will start to see this collaboration taking shape. Joint plans will be developed in the recommended areas.

Whatever your focus is in 2025, we will be working with you to support safer, smarter rail.