Moving into CP5

April 2014 signalled the start of Control Period 5 (CP5). Over the next five years Network Rail will spend £38 billion maintaining, renewing and enhancing Britain’s rail network. So what can we expect to see by 2019?

Headline figures circulated by Network Rail include 170,000 extra peak-time seats for commuters, the renewal of over 4,000 miles of track and electrification of a further 850 miles.

As well as reduced journey times, passengers will see this mammoth investment in the completion of major station redevelopment projects at Birmingham New Street, London Bridge, Glasgow Queen Street and Manchester Victoria.

The £38 billion can be neatly cut into three segments. Around £13 billion will be spent on new infrastructure, £13 billion will go on maintenance and £12 billion will fund the replacement of tired, life-expired infrastructure.

By 2019, Network Rail expects to see the impact of this investment in punctuality levels, having set a new benchmark Public Performance Measure (PPM) of 92.5 per cent. All of this is to be delivered with a smaller public subsidy, reduced from £4 billion to £2 billion.


Birmingham New Street station

Issuing his first public statement as chief executive of Network Rail, Mark Carne set out the organisation’s central aims. Unsurprisingly, safety continues to feature heavily. By 2019, a further £100 million will be spent improving safety at level crossings.


Says Mark, ‘Passenger, public and workforce safety will be at the core of our plans. Good safety performance and good train and business performance go hand-in-hand and in both, we must strive for, and deliver, continuous improvement day by day.

‘Britain’s railways are a vital part of our national infrastructure. They connect homes and workplaces, businesses with markets, they create jobs, stimulate trade and support the growth of a balanced economy.’

A significant chunk of money will be spent on electrification in the next five years. By 2016-17, the Great Western main line will be electrified from Paddington to Bristol, Oxford and Newbury, allowing Hitachi’s new fleet of inter-city trains to enter service.


The West Country will benefit further from the £700 million Western Hub programme, with track remodelling to be carried out at Bristol East junction, new platforms at Bristol Parkway and a revamp of Bristol Temple Meads.

By 2018, Thameslink will also be completed. On 31 March, platforms 14 and 15 came back into service at London Bridge, offering a first glimpse of the work being carried out on the station rebuild.

‘We are good at delivering projects, both great and small, and at providing a safe and reliable railway but want to do even more for the people that rely on our railway network,’ Mark added. ‘This investment responds to the growth and demands being placed upon us by delivering bigger, better stations, more trains and seats, reopened railway lines and fewer level crossings.

‘We all want an improving, safer, successful and better value railway for everyone, and that is what we will do.’​

​

​

London Bridge



Continue reading...