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Monday 31 Mar 2014

Network Rail Scotland begins massive five-year, £5bn railway investment programme

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

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Scotland’s passengers are set to benefit from an ambitious five-year, £5bn spending and investment programme that will transform today's railway.

The ambitious plan, which formally begins tomorrow*, will see the busiest parts of Scotland’s network benefit from investment in new lines, new stations, extended electrification and projects to increase capacity and reduce journey times.

Providing a significant boost to the economy and creating new jobs, the programme will also see Network Rail Scotland working to improve service performance and keep punctuality levels above 92% throughout the 2014-19 period.

With more than 90m passengers already using Scotland’s railway each year, and with that number expected to increase by up to14m over the next five years, the investment plans announced today are vital to the future success of Scotland’s network.

David Dickson, Network Rail’s acting route managing director for Scotland, said: “Scotland’s railways are a vital part of our national infrastructure and millions of passengers and freight users will benefit enormously from the plans we set out today.

“These investments respond to the growing demands being placed upon a railway that is now more popular than ever before and which is set to see passenger numbers grow by a further 15 percent by 2019.

“Over the next five years we will deliver bigger, better stations, more trains and seats, reopen railway lines and reduce the number of level crossings – creating a safer, more successful and better value railway for everyone."

Key projects in Scotland over the next five years include:

• The £650m Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) which will see the main line between Edinburgh and Glasgow electrified with train capacity significantly enhanced, journey times reduced and Glasgow Queen Street station redeveloped

• Completion of the £294m Borders Railway, which will re-establish services from Edinburgh through Midlothian to Tweedbank for the first time in over 40 years

• Delivery of a £170m programme of works on the Aberdeen-Inverness line to improve railway infrastructure and enable enhanced commuting services from Aberdeen to Inverurie and Elgin to Inverness

• Completion of the electrification of the Whifflet line in Glasgow

• Delivery of a range of initiatives to enable journey time improvements on the Highland main line between Perth and Inverness

• Key infrastructure – track, signals bridges – will also be replaced and renewed across the country.

Across Britain as a whole, Network Rail will invest £38bn – delivering a range of key enhancements, renewing or refurbishing more than 7,000km of track and nearly 6,000 sets of points, renewing or refurbishing 5,000km of fencing and almost 300,000m² of platforms at stations.

Safety improvements at level crossings will continue, with the company pledging to close a further 500 crossings by 2019, investing more than £100m as part of its ongoing programme of work to improve safety and reduce risk to passengers and the wider public.

The next five years will also see Network Rail commit itself to furthering its environmental sustainability and resilience in the face of extreme weather and changing climate. By September, a series of 10 route-based climate change strategies will be published, setting out specific measures to be taken to mitigate the effects of severe weather and improve the railway’s long-term sustainability.

Network Rail is committed to making even more trains run on time. By 2019 it has agreed to deliver punctuality levels of 92.5% across England, Wales and Scotland while running more trains and carrying more people than ever before. The company will also provide even better value for money for the British people, delivering a 30% reduction in the day-to-day cost of the railway per passenger kilometre.