Economist

The Economist role can be based at any of our office locations: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, York, Glasgow. At ORR we have adopted hybrid working and are currently expected to work from a workplace location for a minimum of two days per week or 40%. 

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is the independent economic and safety regulator for Britain’s railways and monitor of performance on England’s strategic road network.   

This is an exciting time to join ORR. We are delivering a significant transformation programme to create a consistently agile and enabling organisation, with the right capability and a strong, inclusive culture that reflects our talented people. This will ensure we continue to operate as an independent, expert regulator, fit for the future and equipped with the capabilities and ways of working required to support sector-wide rail reform, while contributing to the government’s broader agenda on regulatory reform and economic growth. Further detail on our future role is set out here.  

​​ORR’s Rail Economics team works on a wide range of economic and policy issues, concerned both with leading development of rail policy and providing specialist advice. ​The Rail Economics team is part of the Economics, Finance and Markets directorate, and works closely with the Regulatory Finance team which carries out financial analysis of rail markets.​ 

​​​You will be expected to work flexibly across a range of ORR’s economic and financial analysis workstreams. Your key responsibilities, although not exhaustive, are expected to include:  

• Carrying out analysis of Great British Railway’s passenger service income and expenditure. This work will help shape ORR’s future roles in advising funders on GBR’s integrated business plans and monitoring GBR’s ongoing delivery of its functions to promote its financial stability. 

As part of the Rail Economics team, you may also be involved in other areas of the team’s work, where you may include:  

• ​Providing high-quality economic assessment and advice on the impact and implementation of policy proposals.   
• ​Contributing to and leading aspects of economic benchmarking and financial analysis projects such as analysis of whole-industry productivity.   
• ​Conducting analysis of applications from train operators to run new services.   
• ​Contributing to ORR’s reviews of the charging and financial frameworks for infrastructure managers such as  London St Pancras High Speed, Eurotunnel, Crossrail and Core Valley Lines.   
• ​Support ORR’s engagement with the development of the future charging and performance schemes for Great British Railways.  
• ​You will also contribute to ORR’s wider economics and analysis communities and support analytical projects across ORR as and when they arise (for instance competition projects).​​ 

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Job Information Pack for further details. 

Find out what our colleagues have to say about their ORR careers at Our people | Office of Rail and Road (orr.gov.uk).