Network Rail unveils five-year plan for railway expansion

It is estimated that Britain’s railways could be carrying as many as 225 million more passengers within six years according to the Network Rail plan unveiled today.

A figure of 92.5 per cent punctuality was set for the period 2009-2014 – but Network Rail has failed to meet the target. However, in today’s business plan the company says it expects to achieve an on-time figure of 92.5 per cent by the end of the period 2019.

Network Rail has warned that with extra trains and seats it would “not be enough” on the busy West Coast Main Line where the added capacity of the London to Birmingham HS2 high-speed rail line project is deemed “essential”.

Network Rail chief executive Sir David Higgins has warned that the industry is under pressure to cut costs and entered an era of “trade-offs”.

“Increasingly we have to balance the need to build more infrastructure, run trains on time and cut costs, and in many areas choices will need to be made.”

“One million more trains run every year than 10 years ago, more passengers arrive on time than ever before, our safety record is one of the best in Europe and, despite the daily challenges we face, customer satisfaction is at record levels.

“Successive governments have made this possible by looking beyond the short term and recognising the critical importance of the railway to Britain’s future.”

The Network Rail plans come at a time of passenger anger at the above-inflation 4.2 per cent season ticket average fare rises this month. They expect to see 355,000 more trains in service by 2019, the highest ever numbers with 20 per cent extra morning peak seats into central London and 32 per cent into large regional cities in England and Wales.

There will be a 10-minute reduction in journey time between Manchester and Leeds with 700 more trains a day linking key northern cities and 30 per cent more freight being carried. The plans also hope to reduce the cost of running the railways by a further 18 per cent and cut the annual public subsidy to between £2.6bn and £2.9bn in 2019.

‘Recipe for disaster’

Bob Crow, the general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, has warned plans to increase capacity while axing staff is a “recipe for disaster”.

“While we support any plans to expand and invest in Britain’s railways, you cannot seriously expect to safely increase capacity while at the same time the government is looking to axe key frontline staff on trains, track and stations.

“Those cuts to safety-critical staff are right at the core of Sir Roy McNulty’s government rail review and we repeat our call for his plans to be stopped in light of the surge in demand for rail services identified by Network Rail.”

“They will simply be cramming more and more people into an overcrowded and unreliable service where safety is compromised and the profits of the private train operators are prioritised.”

Planned projects will include electrification schemes, including the Great Western and Midland Main Lines, station improvements at Birmingham New Street and Reading in Berkshire, and reopening 31 miles of railways in Scotland closed under the Beeching cuts 50 years ago.

Network Rail also hopes to cut CO2 emissions per passenger by 37 per cent and reduce risk at level crossings by 8 per cent.

The plans must be agreed with and approved by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), whose chief executive Richard Price says the “key to maintaining rail’s success will be openly justifying this significant commitment of public money”.

“ORR will now scrutinise the plan on behalf of rail users and taxpayers to ensure every penny is made to count and that all those involved in delivering the plan work together to achieve the highest levels of efficiency and best possible value for money.