Network Rail announced that a record £3.4bn (EUR 4.7 bn) was invested in expanding and growing Britain’s rail network over the last 12 months.
New stations, new services, new facilities, new railway lines – all have been built or brought into use over the last year as millions of passengers and business have benefitted from continued high levels of investment in the railway network.
The expenditure, which is double the level of five years ago (£1.6bn/EUR 2.2 bn in 2009/10), is part of an investment of over £120m (EUR 165m) a week, which includes almost £3bn (EUR 4.1 bn) over the year replacing worn out assets.
Over the same 12-month period, the number of people travelling by rail grew 67.3m to a new record high in modern times of 1.65bn. Passenger numbers have now more than doubled in the past 20 years and although this increase has meant that we are not hitting punctuality targets, more passengers are arriving on time than ever before.
“The railways continue to grow in popularity and we continue to invest heavily to respond to that demand. While progress is being made in improving performance, safety, asset reliability and delivering more renewals and projects, our rate of acceleration in these areas isn’t yet where we want it to be. With more than a million more trains on the network than ten years ago, there are inevitable challenges. We are determined to do more to improve and action is being taken to quicken the pace of change,” Patrick Butcher, finance director, said.
Photo: Network Rail
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