Rail bosses unveil a massive investment (From York Press)
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Rail bosses unveil a massive investment
10:00am Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News
By Julie Hayes, Business editor
Picture from 2008 of engineering work on the West Coast Main line at Rugby
RAIL bosses have announced billions of pounds of investment to increase capacity.
In its strategic business plan for 2014 to 2019, Network Rail has proposed investing £1 billion in new infrastructure, and another £3 billion on operating, renewing and maintaining existing infrastructure on the London North East (LNE) Route from London to Scotland through Yorkshire.
The plan also claims to reduce operating costs by 18 per cent, cutting its annual public subsidy to between £2.6 billion and £2.9 billion in 2019, down from £4.5 billion in 2009 and £7 billion in 2004.
York’s new Route Operating Centre (ROC), which is expected to employ 475 people and be completed in March, will be central to an overhaul of signalling on the LNE route.
As part of a £2.1 billion renewal of existing track and signalling, new technology will be introduced, enabling 238 control points, such as level crossings, to be controlled from York.
The plan also involves reducing the number of jobs across the entire route by 906 as operations are centralised, though York will benefit through jobs being relocated to the city.
Phil Verster, route managing director for LNE, said new technologies were enabling it to cut labour costs.
He said: “Although passenger numbers are increasing and the railways are becoming more busy, at the same time we are delivering everything we have in this plan at a reduced cost, reducing the cost of running the railways and at the same time making it more efficient and cost-effective.
“It’s about new technology and new technology often is more cost-effective than old technology.”
The plan also includes spending £179 million on the electrification of transPennine routes, as well as electrifying the line between Selby and Micklefield to join up with the East Coast Mainline.
A further £240 million is to be spent on addressing key bottlenecks on the East Coast Mainline, and a further £10 million on improvements at Harrogate Station.
Network Rail said the plan would enable Britain’s railways to carry 355,000 more trains, transporting 225 million more passengers per year. It has been submitted to the Office of Rail Regulation for approval.
Comments(2)
nomadic85
says...
1:06pm Thu 10 Jan 13
Magicman! wrote:The only problem with portals (as above in picture) over headspans is the "tunnelling" efect they have on drivers. They are also more costly. Its not normally headspans that are the cause of rip downs either.
It'd be nice if all the structures that support the overhead wires north of York were replaced with gantries like those shown in the picture - it'd save a lot of money in the long term as the wires wouldn't keep falling down every time a cow f@rts in the wrong direction. Another point to note is First Hull Trains has been considering a scheme to wire up the route they use between Hull and the East Coast Main Line just southwest of Selby - privately financed, and it'd be up and running before the Network Rail electrification scheme(s)
This is certainly good news for the industry (and me as an OLE engineer) and passengers alike
Magicman! says...
3:30am Thu 10 Jan 13
Another point to note is First Hull Trains has been considering a scheme to wire up the route they use between Hull and the East Coast Main Line just southwest of Selby - privately financed, and it'd be up and running before the Network Rail electrification scheme(s)