Chris Bolt is planning to step down as chairman of the Office of Rail Regulation when his five-year term ends in July 2009 (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2008/04/chris_bolt_is_to_step_down_as.html#more

Mr Bolt, who heads the 11-strong board, has told colleagues that he has no plans to continue in his £107,583 non-executive post for a second term, partly because of his other commitments.

He is also PPP arbiter for the London Underground public-private partnership, heading a small team that was this week asked to give guidance on the costs that maintenance group Tube Lines could incur in the second 7½ years of its contract.

His ongoing involvement as regulator for the other Tube maintenance company Metronet, which collapsed into administration last June, is unclear.

Under Mr Bolt, the ORR board, whose chief executive is Bill Emery, has adopted a much lower profile stance than the one taken by the former rail regulator Tom Winsor.

Its softly-softly approach has brought criticism from some rail operators, however, unhappy that the ORR has not been tough enough with Network Rail.

After the New Year engineering overruns that disrupted thousands of passengers on the West Coast Main Line, Virgin Trains called for a full-blown investigation into the regulator's monitoring of Network Rail.

Mr Bolt has always maintained that it is not the regulator's job to micro-manage Network Rail.

The ORR subsequently hit the rail infrastructure company with a record £14m fine for the New Year chaos.

Mr Bolt has also not hidden his frustrations with the growing involvement of government ministers in the running of the railways.

In January, in a speech to social and economic think-tank Politeia, he said: