How we’re funded

We’re a public sector company that operates as a regulated monopoly

Our income is a mix of direct grants from the UK and Scottish Governments, charges levied on train operators that use our network, and income, mainly from our commercial property estate.

This means that the views of our passengers, customers, partners, the Government and the regulator really matter to us.

The governments specify what they need from Britain’s railway and how much they can afford to contribute.

Our independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, sets a framework that specifies the level of fixed income we are allowed to charge and assesses the efficient level of expenditure that we need to run our business and deliver the regulated outputs. It also determines how much revenue we need – more details can be found in our Annual Report.