Tuesday 24 Jul 2007
LONDON AND SOUTH EAST TO SEE MAJOR RAIL INVESTMENT
- Region & Route:
- | Southern
Thameslink Programme funding to bring benefits to: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Greater London, Hertfordshire, Kent and Sussex
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
Thameslink Programme This project is crucial to Network Rail's plans to grow the railway, supporting economic growth in London and the South East. This vital £3.55bn project (cost excludes rolling stock) will tackle overcrowding on some of the UK’s busiest routes by enabling longer and more direct trains to run to more destinations. The scheme will be completed by the end of 2015, and has been carefully planned to deliver benefits for passengers before the Olympic Games. • The Thameslink Programme will be one of the biggest rail projects ever in the UK (taking an estimated 40 million hours to complete). • Passengers on the Thameslink route will benefit from 50% longer trains and new direct services (e.g. Cambridge to Gatwick). • The scheme will reduce overcrowding on the Underground, with three times as many trains travelling through London every hour (an increase from 8 to 24). • New stations will be built and bottlenecks removed at Blackfriars and London Bridge. • In addition to the £3.55bn investment in the Thameslink Programme, the Government has made funding available for new rolling stock on the Thameslink route. More info and images available here: http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=3208&NewsAreaID=17&SearchCategoryID=-1Contact information
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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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