The Office of Rail Regulation has commenced a review of the Association of Train Operating Companies’ (ATOC) Code of Practice for the supply of Real Time Train Information.
ATOC introduced its Code of Practice through its subsidiary National Rail Enquiries in April 2010 following ORR’s Competition Act investigation into its supply of RTTI products.
Although the investigation found that ATOC had not infringed the Act, it noted that ATOC had total control over this important input and a special responsibility not to allow its conduct to distort the market.
NRE’s Code was published on 23 April 2010 and was considered an important first step in improving transparency around access to real time train information data.
Whilst the Code was being drafted a number of parties expressed concerns to ORR about whether the Code went far enough and how it would work in practice.
NRE agreed to keep the Code under review in the light of experience and the ORR undertook to seek views on how the Code had worked after it had been in operation for a year.
The ORR are now inviting views from all parties who have recent experience of, or an interest in, accessing or seeking access to RTTI products supplied by ATOC/National Rail Enquiries.
