Media centre

Thursday 12 Jun 2014

£3m invested every day in the railway serving Yorkshire, the north east and East Midlands, Network Rail full-year results reveal

Region & Route:

Over £1bn was invested in improving the rail network connecting London and the home counties with the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the north east over the past 12 months, Network Rail revealed today in its full-year results for the 2013/14 financial year.

The London North Eastern & East Midlands route covers the entire East Coast Main Line from King’s Cross to the Scottish border, the Midland Main Line from St Pancras International to Nottingham and Sheffield and many regional and freight lines in-between.

More than £3m a day was spent on providing a bigger, better railway across the route. Projects include the new station at Wakefield Westgate and improvements for passengers at Nottingham, Derby, Newcastle, Peterborough and Chesterfield among many others. The transformation of King’s Cross was completed with the opening of King’s Cross Square in front of the station.

Long-term investments to remove bottlenecks on the East Coast Main Line were completed at Peterborough, Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace, North Doncaster and Hitchin. On the Midland Mainline, a new timetable offering passengers faster journeys was introduced.

Phil Verster, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, said: “Our railway is a vital part of our national infrastructure. Rail services connect homes and workplaces, businesses and markets; they create jobs, stimulate trade and support the growth of a balanced economy.

“The railway is transporting record numbers of passengers between our cities and towns which is being matched by record investment.

“Passenger numbers are expected to increase by 16% by 2019. We are planning for that demand by continuing to invest, wisely and efficiently. We are committed to implementing these plans whilst maintaining a safe service and making the improvements in performance passengers rightly expect.”

LNE & EM figures and investment highlights:

• Capital expenditure was £1,029m
• Revenue was £552m

 

Investment highlights:

• More reliable and faster services delivered with the successful completion of the £100m resignalling and modernisation of Nottingham station and its approaches
• Faster journeys for passengers along the Midland Main Line connecting Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and other towns and cities to London as a result of a £70m improvement programme
• Completion of a new £47m flyover at Hitchin, improving reliability on the East Coast Main Line.

As well as these significant milestones, nationally, over 5,000 projects have been completed over the course of the past five years (control period 4 – CP4 – 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014). These smaller, but just as important projects aimed at making incremental improvements to the railway for the benefit of passengers, and have seen:

• Over 2,000 miles of track renewed
• Improvements at over 500 stations across the country
• Almost 200 lifts installed at stations
• Over 140 platforms lengthened across London and the South East

 

On the LNE & EM route, other work during the same time period (1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014) includes:

• £600million invested in to the East Coast Mainline to unlock bottlenecks and allow more trains to run
• 242 Level crossings closures, with new bridges replacing crossings at Thrislington, Bolton on Dearne, Moorthorpe, Woodlesford, Normanton, Thorne South and Uttoxeter station. South Milford station crossing was closed in September and pedestrians now use an existing subway. Reduction in risk by 29.3% ahead of target of 25% (fatality weighted index reduced from 4.661 to 3.225).
• Increase of nearly 15,000 freight trains per year from the last year of CP3
• Just under £100m (£96.3) spent on 105 station improvements, including Huddersfield, Bingley, Rotherham, Wakefield Kirkgate, Shipley, Alnmouth, Morpeth, Middlesbrough, York and the Metro Centre stations, and the new station at Wakefield Westgate