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Thursday 12 Jun 2014

Record investment in Britain's railways as Network Rail publishes its full-year results

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National

Almost £7bn was invested in improving and expanding Britain’s rail network over the last 12 months, Network Rail revealed today in its full-year results for the 2013/14 financial year.

The record investment, which equates to almost £20m a day, provided new stations, new platforms, new lifts, new information systems, new concourses, new footbridges and new track to build a bigger, better railway.

Over the same 12-month period, the number of people travelling by rail grew by 86m, meaning passenger numbers have now doubled since 1995* with a further 30% growth predicted over the next ten years.

Mark Carne, chief executive, said: "We are in the middle of a rail renaissance, with record levels of passenger numbers and record levels of investment. This flourishing sector is investing heavily to improve the railway for today and for tomorrow.”

Over the year, 90% of train services ran to time, 2.5 percentage points below the regulatory target. While some of this shortfall was caused by congestion as the railway witnessed growth of 5.7% in passenger journeys during the year, extreme weather and slower improvements in asset reliability also played a part.

Mr Carne continued: “With a million more trains on the network than 10 years ago, there are inevitable challenges - we are determined to do more to improve train reliability in the face of these challenges. We will increase the reliability of the network and make it more resilient to climate change. Continued investment in our railway will also be key if we are to grow our economy and deliver a better, improving, expanding rail network for millions of daily users."

Financial highlights

• Capital expenditure was £6,873m (2012/13: £5,050m) contributing to an increased asset value of £49,833m (£46,411m last year)
• Revenue was £6,333m (£6,197m in 2012/13)
• Profit after tax was £1,256m (up 86%** from £677m) with all profits reinvested
• Operating profit was £2,001m (£2,207m last year)
• Net debt at year end was £32,987m (£30,358m) with a gearing ratio of 65%, comfortably within the regulator’s 75% limit

Patrick Butcher, group finance director, said: ”The last year has been one of operational and financial challenges. We have been disappointed with train performance but celebrate continued strong growth, savings made, swiftly repairing the railway following extreme weather and hundreds of projects completed to improve and expand the railway.

”Our determination cannot waver over the coming years as we look to restore train punctuality to record high levels and wisely invest £38bn to improve and expand our railway for passengers and businesses across Britain.”

 

 

Safety

• Britain's railway has one the best passenger safety performances in Europe
• Level crossing risk has been reduced by 31% and 804 level crossings have been closed over the last four years

• A further £100m has been earmarked over the coming years to continue the closure programme and make further safety improvements at crossings

Performance results

• In 2013/14, 90% of passenger trains ran on time, down on 90.9% last year
• Over the last ten years Network Rail has added over a million more train services a year, increased passenger journeys by half a billion and doubled the number of passengers arriving on time
• Passenger growth is running at double the rate forecast in 2009, with a 5.7% increase to 1,587m during the year

 

Investment highlights

Network Rail is managing many vital enhancement projects to add capacity to the railway and drive economic growth. Some highlights include:

• New, bigger, better facilities have been delivered at King’s Cross by its £550m renovation and rebuilding providing a magnificent gateway to the north
• Opening of the new concourse at Reading station as part of the ongoing £850m project to unblock one of Britain's worst railway bottlenecks
• The continuing work to connect towns of the Scottish Borders to Edinburgh with the building of 30 miles of new railway - the £300m Borders Railway project
• A more reliable and affordable railway for the people of Manchester, Liverpool and the North West through the £400m project to electrify railway in the region
• Many freight projects were completed to improve capacity, speed and reliability of services including the completion of new chords (small curves of railway) at Ipswich and Doncaster; container gauge enhancement from Birmingham to Doncaster and stretches of the East Coast Main Line; and capacity enhancements from Felixstowe to the Midlands
• During the year we also acquired some 100 freight sites around the country for £189m that will generate valuable revenue and enable us to more easily respond to growth and demand in this sector

 

As well as these significant milestones, over 5,000 projects have been completed over the course of the last five years (control period 4 – CP4 – 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014). These smaller, but just as important projects, aimed at making incremental improvements to the railway for the benefit of passengers, have seen:

• Over 2,000 miles of track renewed
• Improvements at over 500 stations across the country
• Almost 200 lifts installed at stations
• Over 140 platforms lengthened across London and the South East