Transparency

A significant amount of information about the railway is already publicly available, and this transparency has helped to produce positive outcomes for passengers.

To improve the information for passengers, particularly during service disruption, we've produced an Approved Code of Practice for customer information (commonly known as PIDD - passenger information during disruption). Train operators use this Code of Practice as a framework for delivering timely, correct and consistent information, so that travellers can make well-informed travel decisions.

Our rail companies are also adopting the most transparent measure for train punctuality of any railway in Europe as part of our drive to improve services for passengers for the long-term. Find out more about these punctuality metrics.

Extensive data on fares, timetables and routeing can be accessed through the National Rail Data Portal. For detailed data around timetables and travel routes, you may be interested in the Routeing guide.

If you are interested in railway statistics, you can search our publications and reports. They can also be found in our press releases.

Train operators have committed to publish key transparency indicators (KTIs) to make it easier to access their important customer and performance data. This list contains links to the transparency page for the each train operator:

• c2c transparency
• Chiltern Railways transparency
• CrossCountry transparency
• East Midlands Railway transparency
• Greater Anglia transparency
• Great Northern transparency
• London Northwestern transparency
• London Overground (Transport for London) transparency
• Merseyrail transparency
• Scotrail transparency
• Southeastern transparency
• Southern transparency
• Thameslink transparency
• Transpennine Express transparency
• Transport for Wales transparency
• West Midlands Railway transparency

The Government also requires each operator to produce a ‘Customer Report’ at the beginning of its contract and to provide updates at least once a year. These Customer Reports detail what has been achieved to date, plans for the franchise and the performance targets against which progress can be measured.

Network Rail is committed to making transparency part of everything they do, and think that working in a more open, honest and accessible way is integral to their success. They know that being more transparent will help them become a more efficient and responsive organisation, and make them more accountable to their stakeholders. Their transparency work includes proactively publishing information, opening up their data – including some of their real time operational feeds, creating a more open culture, and responding to requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act. Find out more about Network Rail’s approach to transparency.

The National Rail Enquiries service (NRE) supports the principle of transparency and contributes to the wider industry agenda by making data openly available in the public domain, for third party developers to use to create their own products and applications. The data feeds are derived from three primary engines:

• Darwin - the official industry real-time train running information, including arrival and departure predictions, platform numbers, delay estimates, as well as real-time schedule changes and cancellations;
• Knowledgebase - the content engine and database of the National Rail Enquiries website;
• Online Journey Planner - the engine used to plan routes, calculate fares and establish ticket availability on National Rail Enquiries digital channels.

Find out more about access to NRE data feeds.

In addition, NRE practices transparency through frequent engagement with the developer community, holding developer engagement events biannually. The events offer data users an opportunity to engage with NRE’s technical experts and those working within the open data remit. NRE commit to publish developer feedback gathered at these events. Find out more about NRE Developer Engagement Days.

Train companies also create various types of data associated with the provision of their rail services, including fares, timetables and valid London terminals data. The Rail Settlement Plan service is authorised to make this data available under licence to third parties on behalf of the train companies, to promote rail travel and encourage the wider distribution of accurate and consistent rail travel information on an impartial basis. There are more details about this service at on the National Rail Data Portal.

We have committed to publishing a summary of our Board-level meetings.

Reducing our carbon footprint

RDG has signed up to The Climate Pledge, with an ambition to be a net-zero carbon organisation by 2040, ten years ahead of the national net-zero target, 2050. This means we have committed to:

• Calculating and reporting our carbon footprint on an annual basis, and increasing the accuracy of the calculations over time
• Finding ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions
• By 2040, offsetting any greenhouse gas emissions we have not been able to prevent

Read the April 2020 to March 2021 report.