Mark Phillips
Chief Executive, RSSB
Rising financial pressures, increasing expectations around safety, reliability, accessibility, and the pace of structural reform, mean that the rail industry needs to know not what has already happened, but what happens next.
We are fortunate therefore that cutting-edge AI-enabled technology allows us to make this transition towards outcome-focused, predictive insight—identifying issues before they happen.
This will provide effective support for rail reform, improve performance, and deliver cost-effective change across the industry.
Our Annual Business Plan 2026-27—Laying the pathway to Britain’s next railway revolution—embraces this shift so that RSSB will continue to provide trusted and independent whole-system insight as Great British Railways (GBR) takes shape.
Our railways are undergoing the most significant transformation in a generation. The creation of GBR marks a pivotal moment, bringing much of the industry under a more unified public leadership and accountability framework, and setting the stage for a new era of rail reform.
GBR will operate as the ‘directing mind’ for the industry, while working alongside devolved authorities, freight operators, and suppliers, simplifying interfaces and strengthening system co-ordination.
Against this backdrop of reform and financial constraint, the RSSB business plan sets out how AI-enabled data, standards, and whole-system insight can unlock savings and benefits across the industry.
When change brings risk, safety needs certainty and our work in 2026–27 is therefore deliberately focused on outcomes rather than activity: on data, standards, and solutions that unlock value across the system; and on de‑risking change.
Feedback from members consistently highlights ‘cost’ as their most pressing challenge, one that is expected to persist in the coming years.
We embed the principle of ‘reasonable practicability’ in decision-making across all our work, systematically comparing the costs of interventions with the financial benefits delivered, to ensure value for money.
Key initiatives
The key initiatives outlined below are not standalone innovations, but address known industry challenges while passing our twin tests of reasonable practicability and value for money:
- We aim to boost freight efficiency, support 5,000 Port Talbot jobs, and advance the UK’s net‑zero ambitions by generating the evidence needed to safely revise current freight restrictions. Working in partnership with Network Rail Wales Route, we will determine how operational rules can be safely adapted to enable additional flows to service the new Electric Arc Furnace. Unlocking this capacity will deliver £18 million in additional revenue for freight operators over 5 years and help secure £1.25 billion of investment for the South Wales region. It will also contribute to the Government’s target for rail freight growth of at least 75% by 2050.
- In-service trials of enhanced trailing arm bushes (ETAB) are expected to confirm potential lifetime maintenance savings of up to £43 million for a typical GB operator, with about 15 fleets set to benefit. We will partner with Transport for Wales to retrofit ETAB to Mark 4 vehicles, collect in‑service data to confirm projected savings, and work with rolling stock leasing companies to enable wider roll-out.
- Working with DfT Operator, we will develop AI agents that deliver whole-system intelligence on performance insight across health, safety, and sustainability directly to leaders. RSSB’s Health Insights alone is expected to identify health risks across the industry with expected cost benefits of around £65 million over 5 years.
- Rail’s contribution to jobs, accessibility, community, health, and the environment will be assessed through the publication of a social impact report. As rail lacks a unified measure of its social value, our report will add the missing piece: who benefits, how, and by how much. If industry adopts the best practice highlighted in the report, it will support better planning and greater social value creation. Assuming a 5% uplift in reported social value over 5 years, the potential benefit is £338 million, or around £67.5 million per year.
- To unlock savings for our rail partners, we will work on the development of an overspeed indicator: a predictive solution that identifies where overspeed is likely to occur to direct priority interventions. This will help Network Rail and operators manage overspeed risk, valued at £1.6 million over 5 years. The project aims to cut this risk by 5% from the 2024/25 baseline, with potential for more improvement as additional preventive measures are implemented.
- We aim to embed our predictive tool that forecasts track and wagon wheel wear to enable preventive maintenance. Following a successful pilot with Freightliner, we will work with the broader freight community to drive industry-wide adoption. This tool will significantly reduce the £500,000 of vehicle faults per annum associated with brake, brake system faults, and wheel flats, potentially unlocking additional savings.
- By delivering a free, cross-industry carbon management tool for consistent calculation and management of carbon project forecasts, we aim to accelerate decarbonisation of the built environment, which has a very high level of embodied carbon. The tool delivers accurate data and quicker decisions, eliminating paid licences, and saving the industry £1.5–2 million annually.
Our Annual Business Plan 2026-27 is built around giving our members, stakeholders, and the future GBR the tools, knowledge, and insight it needs to make faster, smarter decisions on safety, performance, and cost.
The plan sets out how AI-enabled data, standards, and whole-system intelligence can be used to improve safety and value across Britain’s railway.
RSSB’s role is to enable cost‑effective change without compromising safety; provide independent, evidence‑based insights; reduce system‑level risk; and support the industry to be future‑ready.
We’re immensely proud that, for over 20 years, we have been the connective tissue that unites Britain’s railway system, supporting collaboration and whole-system coherence.
Using predictive insight to anticipate
Now we are moving beyond retrospective assurance to become the organisation that helps the industry anticipate with predictive insight what is likely to happen next, and why.
The overall benefits and outcomes from the RSSB business plan are to meaningfully contribute to reducing industry costs, thereby easing the burden on taxpayers and fare payers.
It will also contribute to improved train performance, reliability, and safety, leading to a better overall experience for passengers and freight logistics businesses.
Rail reform is one of the biggest structural changes this industry has seen in a generation. Collectively, we have the opportunity to create a new golden age for Britain’s rail industry, and RSSB will play its full part in making it a success.