FirstGroup will publish a report today which sets out its support for open access passenger services, as the fight to protect them ramps up.

The report and the event in London at which it will be unveiled had been planned before transport secretary Heidi Alexander published a letter to the Office of Rail and Road about open access licences two weeks ago.

In it she signalled the likelihood that open access licences will be harder to obtain in the future, saying: ‘I am … aware of the additional pressures new services can create on already constrained network capacity and their impact on the value secured from public investment in infrastructure. While Open Access operators pay variable access charges to Network Rail to cover the direct costs incurred running their trains on the network, unlike government contracted operators they do not fully cover the costs of fixed track access charges.’

She also warned that the formal guidance which the ORR is given by the transport secretary could be changed.

Open access licences will be the only way that the private sector can continue to run passenger trains when the last of the old franchises is renationalised, probably in 2027.

The first National Rail Contract to be terminated is set to be South Western Railway in May, owned by FirstGroup and MTR (which has a minority stake). Other FirstGroup contracts for Great Western Railway and Avanti West Coast will follow. First’s TransPennine Express contract was terminated by the previous government in May 2023 because of poor performance, and has been nationalised since then.