Freedom of information (FOI)

The Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations

As a public authority, Network Rail is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). This means that everyone has the right to ask us for any recorded information we hold and we must provide it to them where possible. There are some limited and specific exemptions but in most cases we need to release the information we hold on request.

There is no category of information or area of our organisation that is not covered by the legislation. It covers our public functions as well as our commercial activities and applies to our subsidiary companies.

As part of our commitment to transparency, we proactively publish a range of information through our publication scheme. It may be worth checking our transparency pages before you make a request, to see if the information you are looking for has already been published.

We also publish some details of previous requests via our disclosure list, so people can see what has previously been provided under FOIA and the EIR.

Performance

In Quarter 2 of the 2024/2025 financial year (23 June 2024 – 14 September 2024) Network Rail received 419 Freedom of Information requests. Our disclosure rate in response to these was 57%. Of these requests, 67% were submitted by members of the public interested in Network Rail actions. The most popular subjects were bridges/arches, safety , contracts, and stations (Network Rail managed).

Please see below a downloadable document showing more detailed figures for the quarter:

Freedom of Information Performance Q2 2024-25

Information available in the public domain

We often receive requests for information that is readily available in the public domain. Before you submit a request, you may which to check whether information that answers your request is available via any of the following:<

  • National Electronic Sectional Appendix – detailed information about the rail network, including track diagrams and line speeds
  • Land Registry – title deeds and documents for properties in England and Wales
  • Realtime Trains – real-time information about train services across the Great British rail network, including numbers of freight and passenger services running through specific locations