Media centre

Thursday 21 Nov 2013

Record investment in the railway serving Yorkshire, North East and East Midlands as Network Rail publishes its half-year results

Region & Route:

Station improvements at Peterborough, Wakefield (both Westgate and Kirkgate), Nottingham and Newcastle; a new public square at King’s Cross; new footbridges and level crossing improvements including South Milford, Thorne South, Bayles & Wylies near Nottingham and Allen’s West; bridge improvements in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Selby, and Hull; not to mention new flyovers at Hitchin and North Doncaster are all part of record investment in the railway on the London North Eastern and East Midlands route.

Network Rail today published its half-year results (for the period 1 April to 31 October 2013) which revealed that £2.74bn was invested in improving and building a bigger, better railway - 33% up on the same period last year and 53% higher than just four years ago.

The London North East and East Midlands (LNE & EM) Route is a primary rail link between London, the East Midlands and the North East of England and Scotland. It also covers an extensive commuter network connecting cities across the North of England and also into London.

Phil Verster, Route Managing Director, said: "Passenger numbers and demand for freight continues to grow apace. Around 180 million passengers use our route each year and every day we run around 3,500 passenger trains. Demand for essential freight deliveries to power stations, industry and the airports are also on the increase. In the past six months we have invested around £586 million to help meet that demand.

“Investments such as the recent work at Nottingham are renewing old infrastructure with modern, more reliable systems. New sections of track at Hitchin and North Doncaster will help improve reliability; and significant changes at our stations are making them more accessible and providing

better passenger information to give our towns and cities the gateways they deserve.

Over the past six months some significant investment milestones have been reached on the route, including:

• Completion of the £550m renovation and rebuilding of Cubitt's King's Cross station into a magnificent gateway to the north
• Completion of the £100m re-signalling and modernisation of Nottingham and its approaches
• Completion of the £47m Hitchin flyover to remove major bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line

As well as these major milestones hundreds of other projects have completed and many more will complete by the end of our current funding period which runs 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014. Many of these have been less glamorous, but just as important projects aimed at making incremental improvements to the railway for the benefit of passengers. These projects include:

• Dec 2011 – installation of an additional line and new junction south of York at Holgate, relieving a bottleneck
• March 2012 – new departures concourse at King’s Cross
• Jan 2013 – platform improvements at Wakefield Kirkgate station. Note – Network Rail is also contributing to the current improvements of the listed station building
• March 2013 upgraded signalling at Leicester
• July 2013 – repair of the Doncaster – Cleethorpes line following a spoil heap slip at Hatfield
• October 2013 – waybeam renewal at DairyCoates intersection bridge, Hull; reconditioning of Market Weighton brige; upgrades to level crossings in Sandhill Lane, Thorpe Hall and Thorpe Gates
• October 2013 – opening of new footbridge to replace Bayles & Wylies level crossing in Bestwood
• Sept 2013 – removal of level crossing at South Milford and diversion of right of way. New safe walking route installed to prevent pedestrians having to use Ballast Hole level crossing in Lincolnshire
• Ongoing - £70 million investment programme to speed up journey times on the Midland Main Line between London and Sheffield. This work also includes some passive provision for future electrification works
• Ongoing in partnership with East Coast, improvements at Newcastle station, rebuild of Wakefield Westgate station. Improvements to the concourse at Peterborough are already completed. Further passenger enhancements, including lifts and passenger information systems are on the way as well as extensive signalling and track improvements by Network Rail
• Ongoing – North Doncaster Chord, providing freight traffic with a route over the East Coast Main line, preventing conflicts between passenger and freight services
• Freight clearance projects on routes Doncaster to Water Orton; Teesport to the East Coast Main Line and Peterborough to Nuneaton allowing larger container traffic to be transported by rail, keeping lorries off the roads

Nationally, over the six months to 31 October:

• Revenue remained static at £3.267bn (£3.167bn for same period, 2012)
• Operating profit remained static at £1.199bn (£1.227bn last year)
• Profit after tax was £870m (£563m last year. Increase owing to tax treatment)
• Net debt stands at £30.611bn (slightly up from £30.358bn at year end)
• Value of railway assets increase to £47.933bn (up from £46.411bn at year end)

Mr Verster concluded: “We know the railway has a crucial role to play to support the economy. In our next funding period, starting in April, we plan to spend £2.3bn on renewing old assets and a further £2bn on enhancements that improve our network. We continue to invest wisely to drive down the cost of running the railway without compromising safety.

“Train performance, while by historical standards, is still at high levels, has fallen behind our targets and our challenge remains driving up performance on an ageing and overloaded network.”