GREAT WESTERN MAIN LINE TO SEE MAJOR INVESTMENT

Tuesday 24 Jul 2007

GREAT WESTERN MAIN LINE TO SEE MAJOR INVESTMENT

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Wales & Borders; | Wales & Western

• Key new rail projects funded • Network Rail to develop Strategic Business Plan for the railway Today’s unveiling by the government of its 30-year rail strategy is good news for all those who use Britain’s railway. This strategy, with its associated funding, will inform the plans of Network Rail as it delivers a better railway. Iain Coucher, Network Rail’s Chief Executive, said: “For the first time in a generation there is consensus amongst politicians of all parties and business, passengers and the wider public that sustained high levels of investment in the railway is needed. “This investment will enable us to expand the railways, deliver more passenger services, more seats and an overall better service. This will boost the British economy, promote a sustainable, low-carbon transport alternative and improve quality of life.” Mr Coucher concluded: “At the same time as delivering a growing railway, we will not lose sight of the day job – that of providing a reliable and safe railway for passengers and freight users. We are already delivering hundreds of schemes up and down the country that will improve the railway, many of them tackling train overcrowding. With the extra funding announced today, Network Rail will be able to ramp up the delivery of more projects and give Britain the railway it truly needs.” Network Rail will respond in detail to the government's strategy when it publishes its Strategic Business Plan in November 2007.

Notes to editors

Unblocking the Great Western Main Line: This is a priority infrastructure investment which will tackle a major bottleneck on one of the busiest routes on the network. The key to unblocking this bottleneck is our £425m plans for Reading station. We will introduce new platforms, improve the layout of tracks, and install new signalling to greatly improve capacity and reliability for passengers travelling from as far afield as London, Exeter, Southampton, and Edinburgh: • Reading station was first opened in 1840, and has been remodelled several times to accommodate new train services • We will introduce at least four 12-car platforms to increase passenger and freight capacity on routes from London to the South West and Wales • The number of through platforms will also be increased to allow faster and more reliable services • Work will begin in 2009 and the first benefits will come in time for the Olympics

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -Western route
MediaRelationsWestern@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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