16.10.19
£10bn rail network enhancements announced for the next five years
The Department for Transport (DfT) has today (Oct 16) released its five-year Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP) outlining plans that span over £10bn and 58 projects.
The Control Period 6 (CP6) will provide the funding for the 58 short and long-term rail developments, through the enhancements budget that runs from 2019 to 2024.
Plans will see the upgrading of infrastructure to increase railway capability, either through capacity or changes to the running of the railway.
Individual schemes seeking DfT funding need to progress through the five-step decision gateways before moving into delivery, the first step being ‘decision to initiate’, moving on to development, design, delivery and then finally to ‘deploy’.
Schemes at the first ‘decision to initiate’ stage include additional capacity being added to Leeds station, Stratford station and London Liverpool station.
Projects which are yet to receive a ‘decision to initiate’ have not been included in the report, and more may be added or updated in future publications.
Lengthening measures to reduce overcrowding will be implemented on the Chiltern Railways and West Midlands Trains services.
A number of performance and frequency improving projects are currently in the second ‘decision to develop’ stage. These include Brighton Main Line, Solihull corridor and London Victoria.
Projects in the final ‘decision to design’ stage include the improvement of Bristol East Junction, an additional footbridge to St Albans station to minimise congestion and signalling enhancements to Feltham.
All projects are centred around Network Rail’s ethos of ‘putting passengers first’.
CP6 funding is not limited to Network Rail and the Department for Transport projects, but all must go through the RNEP.
Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association (RIA), said: “This is a really positive development announced today by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and we welcome this timely intervention ahead of the Transport Select Committee hearing.
“The Railway Industry Association and its members have been calling for a list of enhancements projects for well over a year, and that is why we launched our ‘Show Us the Rail Enhancements’ campaign in the autumn. So it’s great news that the new Ministerial team have acted swiftly on taking office to deliver on this.”