Media centre

Tuesday 5 Jul 2016

Scotland's railway enhancement programme

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Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

| National

Commenting on today’s publication of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) Network Rail Monitor Scotland, Phil Verster, Managing Director of Network Rail Scotland and of the ScotRail Alliance said:

“Our Network Rail project teams and their suppliers have a strong and proud track record in Scotland of delivering on-time and on-budget. We need look no further than the Borders Railway line to see evidence of that.

“The programme impacts highlighted today will not delay the introduction of our exciting new fleet of faster, longer, greener trains – nor will they impact on our ability to deliver the 200 new services and 20,000 extra seats promised in the Revolution in Rail timetable change.

"Very importantly, our teams have learnt valuable lessons from the circumstances, decisions and programme impacts over the last months. The Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme is still progressing well and, as the ORR indicated today, the costs have risen due to extra compliance requirements, complicated interfaces with other projects and other unforeseen factors such as severe weather impacts.

“Despite this, I am pleased to confirm that we are committed to still deliver the overall railway enhancement programme for Scotland by March 2019, and within the agreed funding limits.

“Everyone in Scotland’s railway industry is working closer together than ever before to make a success of these programmes and to deliver the exciting, transformed railway that all of us can be proud of. This is all about our customers and how we improve their journeys and their experiences on the railway.”

Karl Budge, Director for Network Rail Investment Projects in Scotland said:

“We are delivering a hugely exciting and hugely ambitious enhancement programme in Scotland.  We have strengthened our delivery structure creating a new management team; changing how we manage the programme, supply chain and contractors. This new structure will improve our decision making processes.

"We are working with Transport Scotland to deliver our enhancement programme as quickly and cost-effectively as possible for both the taxpayer and passenger.’’

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

1. Between 2014 and 2019 £4.4bn is being invested in Scotland’s railway infrastructure including £1.4bn on infrastructure enhancements specified by Transport Scotland: Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP); Highland Main Line improvements; Aberdeen Inverness Improvement Project; and a rolling programme of electrification (including the Shotts and Stirling Dunblane Alloa projects).
2. The introduction of the new faster, longer and greener electric trains, still on programme for December 2017, will increase capacity in the Central Belt by 20% while reducing journey times. 
3. The completion dates of some of the enhancement programmes have been affected by weather events, challenges in scope definition and programme decisions. The programme for Scotland is expected to be delivered within the funding limits agreed with the Scottish Government. 
4. EGIP is a complex mix of different project designed to come together as a seve-year programme of works to provide the capacity need to support unprecedented growth.
5. Significant elements of EGIP have already been delivered on time and budget including Cumbernauld electrification, the redeveloped Haymarket station and route clearance involving 61 structures.
6. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) Network Rail Monitor Scotland published today confirms that: ‘In general terms progress has been good (for example, Borders Railway) but affordability and deliverability risks are emerging for projects at earlier stages of development and delivery … Estimated costs have risen, in large part due to the additional compliance scope requirements, the complicated interface with the Buchanan Galleries project and additional linespeed works to achieve journey time improvements.’