The ORR’s letter to Network Rail today marks a new level of severity in its continued warning that the company is set to fail to meet its performance targets.

This failure could be considered a contravention of Network Rail’s licence obligations, yet it is unclear what the specific consequences will be.

Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that Network Rail will be able to affect the performance figures significantly enough to recover from this situation in time. It is already November – it has simply run out of time.

Is it useful to receive further warnings when there is no option to avoid impending failure?

Of course this kind of formality is necessary to ensure that Network Rail is taking the situation as seriously as it deserves, and has one last chance to explain the failing performance.