The railway infrastructure manager of Great Britain, Network Rail, is responsible for 30,000 tunnels, bridges, track beds, over 32,000 km of line, 17 major stations and 2,500 stations rented to operators, as well as 8,200 commercial properties.
At the national level, the freight traffic significantly increased due to privatisation, totalling 28 billion t/km/year; the railway passenger transport increased by 50% (compared to 10 years ago), and for 2020 the estimates indicate increases of another 400 million trips.
By allocating investments in railway infrastructure modernisation and development projects, Network Rail proves again the impact of the railway transport on the insurance of the freight and passenger mobility, but also the profitability rate: for instance, according to the company, every pound spent on the Northern Hub project will return four pounds to the economy, but the major projects that we are currently delivering will generate a rate of return several times their cost.
Under the circumstances, in the beginning of January, Network Rail announced that in the period 2014-2019 it plans to invest GBP 37.5 Billion (over EUR 46 Billion) in extending the railway system. If the proposal is approved, the new infrastructure will significantly contribute to the increase of the transport capacity, providing 170,000 places for the railway passenger transport, which is not enough for the extremely crowded traffic on the West Coast Main Line. “Network Rail’s documentation on its Strategic Business Plan had some good information in it about what the company plans to do in the next 5 year Control Period and beyond. Costs are still coming down, with efficiency savings now expected to be 20% in the present Control Period, following 27% in the previous one; a good achievement, although unlikely to be enough to meet the ORR target. What is interesting is the lack of any figure of savings due to the activities of the Rail Delivery Group or the Alliancing with South West Trains. This of course was the great hope of the McNulty Report, but the savings from the train operators do seem rather illusory and, of course, are nothing compared with the additional costs of letting the franchises after the DfT’s West Coast Main Line debacle” , said Lord Tony Berkeley, Chairman – Rail Freight Group UK.
“The total investment sum sought for this next Control Period is GBP 27 Billion, bringing NR’s debt up to GBP 50 Billion by 2019. Of course, most of this goes into investment to increase the ‘value’ of the rail network but even with interest rates at the current low level, NR by then might be paying GBP 500 Million to GBP 1,000 Million in interest charges on this debt and, if interest rates rise to more normal rates by 2019, and if Network rail succeed in reducing the subsidy from government to the rail industry to between GBP 2.5 Billion to GBP 3.0 Billion by the same time, one could be in a situation where the railway becomes self-sufficient without government support – except for Government having to pay the interest charges on this GBP 50 Billion of NR debt”, said Lord Tony Berkeley.
However, the investments which are to be allocated in the next 5 years will determine the increase of the number of passengers by another 225 million, the number of trains reaching 355,000, the carbon dioxide emissions decreasing by 37% per passenger and likewise, for the freight traffic, increases by 30% are estimated compared to current statistics. The objectives established by Network Rail represent a record for the railway system of Great Britain. “We want to continue the development of the railway system, in the same way in which the industry is developed. The passengers and the clients of the railway freight transport must notice the value of our efforts, and this makes us answer the demands on the capacity increase. The objectives will be reached by increasing the efficiency and by providing services of higher quality”, declared the president of the Rail Delivery Group, Tim O’Toole.
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