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Britain's biggest builder Network Rail, which is responsible for over 20% of Britain's infrastructure spend, is today announcing sweeping new reforms that will enable companies to become heavily involved in delivering railway investment projects.

• Unprecedented investment – £133m – will be spent on upgrading the rail network across Britain this August bank holiday
• Passengers should plan early as travel will be impacted in and out of London Bridge, Euston, Liverpool St, Waterloo, Paddington, Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Blackfriars
• Services out of London Victoria, King’s Cross, St Pancras, Marylebone and Fenchurch Street are unaffected but are likely to be much busier
• No services to or from London Euston on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 August
• Services in and out of Waterloo station will be limited throughout August
• Fewer trains into London Bridge station from 26 August – 2 September

Bosses responsible for upgrading and modernising Britain’s railway with digital technology have today (20/7) revealed plans how they could incorporate next generation tech from new suppliers, non-railway sectors, and businesses with specialist tech-sector knowledge, while making it easier for these organisations – not usually associated with the railway – to get involved and become partners to the railway network.

• Record £3.9bn spend on enhancements
• Exceptional safety record continues
• Reliability and performance of infrastructure assets now best on record
• Cost efficiencies remain challenging
• Train performance below industry expectations owing to increased congestion, severe weather and industrial action

New figures from Network Rail¹ reveal that young people are more likely to have a near miss at a level crossing during the summer.  Light nights, coupled with the summer holidays, spell danger for Britain’s youth with August and early September seeing near misses at level crossings rise significantly¹.

A new delay-busting Traffic Management system on the Great Western Railway will boost performance on train journeys between London Paddington and Bristol Parkway. Thanks to a two year contract agreed between Network Rail and the British signalling & train control specialists, Resonate, a one year trial of ‘Luminate’ Traffic Management System could see reactionary delays reduced by up to 15%.

• Significant passenger benefits to be realised in the months ahead as Network Rail’s mega-projects start to draw to a close
• More than £133m to be invested in the biggest August bank holiday railway investment programme ever undertaken
• Come 2019, passengers travelling into central London from as far away as Swansea, will see: an extra 170,000 seats; more frequent services on 16 lines serving the capital; longer north-south trains every 2-3 minutes as part of the Thameslink programme and an extra 1.5m people within 45 minutes of the capital once the Crossrail project is complete
• Routes to UK airports unaffected over the bank holiday weekend

• The seven-year contract is worth £125m
• Single biggest roadside advertising contract in the UK
• Primesight will build 20 new digital billboards on Network Rail land by year end
• Primesight to take over advertising rights on Network Rail bridges from April 2018