Media centre

Thursday 16 Mar 2006

MEDIA INVITATION: SOUTH WEST MAIN LINE TO GET CAPACITY ENHANCEMENTS - CONCLUSION OF ROUTE UTILISATION STRATEGY

Region & Route:

| Southern: Wessex

| Southern

Date:               Tuesday 21 March Time:              09.45 for 10.00am (duration approximately 1hr) Venue:            Waterloo Station, Wessex Integrated Control Centre Who:               John Armitt, Chief Executive Richard Eccles, Head of Route Planning Contact:         Press office 020 7904 4380 Journalists are invited to come and hear the recommendations of Network Rail’s first route utilisation strategy – the South West Main Line. Waterloo, and the routes serving the station, are heavily used with passenger and freight growth of some 20% predicted over the next 10 years.  After three months of extensive consultation and further analysis, the South West Main Line RUS has taken the 21 proposals for improving services and growing the network and honed them down to 12 value for money recommendations. John Armitt and Richard Eccles will detail the recommendations and John will be available for interview after a short presentation. Journalists should rendezvous at 9.45am, upstairs in the Reef Bar on Waterloo station.  A press officer will then escort the group through to the Wessex Integrated Control Centre conference room.