Image of London Bridge, Tooley Street Entrance
Network Rail has unveiled a £2.4 billion two-year programme of enhancements designed to increase capacity and ease overcrowding.
The plans include 900 separate schemes that involve lengthening hundreds of platforms, adding new platforms, laying new tracks, raising line speeds and improving capacity through major resignalling work.
Chief Executive John Armitt said it was the first time on record that more than £1 billion a year would be spent on growing the network. The company is creating a new senior management role of director, infrastructure projects, to deliver the schemes, It will be filled by Simon Kirby, the present director, major projects and investment, who joined Network Rail in 2003 after 17 years with BAE systems.
The £2.44 billion of infrastructure work will take place between this month and March 2009. Network Rail will directly fund £1.73bn and the remaining £713m will come from the Department for Transport, Transport Scotland, the Welsh Assembly, passenger transport executives, local authorities, port authorities, train operators and freight groups.
Network Rail said the spending was the highest “since well before privatization”. It said British Rail did not record enhancement spending, but in the last 12 years, the annual average had been about £500 million.
Mr Armitt said: "The railway is thriving. Demand for rail continues to grow and today's news outlines Network Rail's response to those demands.
"We're not standing still waiting for the big infrastructure projects to be delivered. We are doing something about it now by moving forward with hundreds of small schemes dotted around the country that will add capacity and ease crowding.
"For the first time on record, over £1bn per year will be spent on expanding and growing the railway network. This, more than anything, shows how the needs of today's railway are shifting. We will never lose sight of the imperative to run a safe and reliable railway each and every day, but responding to the challenge of growth becomes a more important priority for the company."
Funding for many of the schemes has already been announced. Some of the larger schemes in the programme are shown below with the spending over the next two years, and their total cost in brackets.
•New line from Airdrie to Bathgate, £ 214 million (£300 million),
•Freight capacity enhancements on Brigg line, £9 million (£9 million),
•New platforms at Bristol Parkway, £10 million (£10 million),
•New East Midlands Parkway station, £24 million (£24 million),
•Grays platform extension, £3 million (£3 million),
•King’s Cross extra platform, £15 million (£15 million)
•New platforms at Manchester airport, £15 million (£15 million),
•New platform at Newport station, £5 million (£5 million),
•Olympic schemes, £109 million (£400 million),
•Thameslink station at St Pancras International, £78 million (£78 million),
•Trent Valley track doubling scheme, £165 million (£300 million),
•South Wales platform extensions, £13 million (£14 million),
Other schemes include:
•Edinburgh Waverley capacity enhancement, £49 million,
•Great Eastern overhead line rebuild scheme, £50 million,
•Gretna to Annan track doubling scheme, £35 million,
•Hull docks schemes, £9 million,
•Luton station redevelopment, £10 million,
•Wakefield Westgate new platform, £1.4m,
•Virgin West Coast stations car park extension scheme, £90m.
Mr Armitt said the Thameslink upgrade and redevelopment plans for Birmingham New Street and Reading remained key priorities.
"We are taking action now to expand the rail network and help relieve crowding on the network. But we want to do even more and will be outlining in the autumn our longer terms plans for even more growth and expansion on Britain’s thriving railway,” he said.
The RMT welcomed the plans, and general secretary Bob Crow said: “This is a good start towards the massive increase in capacity that our railways need if we are to meet the climate challenge and get people out of cars and aeroplanes and on to trains.
“High on the agenda must also be a new high-speed north-south rail link and the go-ahead for the long-awaited Crossrail project. It is important that money invested is spent wisely, and not wasted on bloated PFI-type contracts.”
Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said; “At last we’ve broken free from simply maintaining and replacing track and signals and move towards expanding the network to make space to run more and longer trains. In addition this looks more like a shopping list rather than the wish lists we’ve had in the past – these plans are costed and look likely to happen.
“The 1000 extra carriages recently announced by the DfT will mean more work is needed in the future to fit them in. We are still waiting for a Government decision regarding major projects such as Thameslink and CrossRail. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the fares charged to pay for these improvements and the disruption caused by the works”