21.11.13
Half-year results show £2.74bn investment in rail
Network Rail has invested £2.74bn in improving the railway from April this year, its half-year results show. Covering 1 April – 30 September, this represents a 33% increase on the same period last year.
Major projects include King’s Cross £500m renovation, the new concourse at Reading station, the start of the Borders Railway project, and electrification in the north west. The £100m resignalling and modernisation project at Nottingham has also been completed and a major bottleneck on the ECML removed with the Hitchin Flyover.
Other work includes an improvement programme along the Midland Main Line and modernisation of the railway between Shrewsbury and Wrexham. Additionally, more than 2,000 miles of track has been renewed, over 500 stations improved, almost 200 lifts installed and more than 140 platforms lengthened.
Patrick Butcher, Network Rail group finance director, said: “The railway continues to experience tremendous growth and we are responding to that demand through the biggest sustained investment programme since Victorian times.
“With a million more trains and half a billion more passengers than 10 years ago our railways are all but full. We are squeezing all we can out of the existing network and new railway lines, such as HS2, must be built to deliver the step-change in capacity that Britain’s vital rail arteries need.
“We continue to invest record amounts to deliver a bigger, better railway for passengers and businesses across Britain. We are also driving down the cost of running Britain’s railway to help make it more affordable in the years ahead. Train performance is still at high levels by historical standards, but has fallen behind our targets as we struggle to get more and more out of an ever overloaded network.”
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