Published on : Friday, November 22, 2013
Network Rail today published its half-year results (for the period 1 April to 30 September 2013) which revealed that £2.74bn, some £15m per day, was invested in improving and building a bigger, better railway – 33% up on the same period last year and 53% higher than just four years ago.
In Scotland alone, £224m has been invested in a range of schemes delivering new platforms, new lifts, new information systems, new concourses, new bridges, new track and signalling and more electrification.
From the start of main construction work on the new £294m Borders Railway to the delivery of £10m of signalling enhancements at Stirling and the completion of the new £2.5m station footbridge at Perth, the first six months of the year has seen significant investment at locations across the county.
Patrick Butcher, group finance director, said: “The railway continues to experience tremendous growth and we are responding to that demand through the biggest sustained investment programme since Victorian times.
“With a million more trains and half a billion more passengers than 10 years ago our railways are all but full. We are squeezing all we can out of the existing network and new railway lines, such as HS2, must be built to deliver the step-change in capacity that Britain’s vital rail arteries need.”
GB-wide over the past six months some significant investment milestones have been reached, including:
New, bigger, better facilities have been delivered at King’s Cross as its £550m renovation and rebuilding nears completion providing a magnificent gateway to the north and sees a concourse three times the size of the old
Opening of the new concourse at Reading station as part of the ongoing £850m project to unblock one of Britain’s worst railway bottlenecks
The start of work to connect towns of the Scottish Borders to Edinburgh with the building of 30 miles of new railway – the £300m Borders Railway project
A more reliable and affordable railway for the people of Manchester, Liverpool and the North West as we continue with the £400m project to electrify railway in the region
More reliable and faster services delivered with the successful completion of the £100m resignalling and modernisation of Nottingham and its approaches
A major bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line has been removed with the completion of the £47m Hitchin flyover
Faster journeys for passengers along the Midland Main Line connecting Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby and other towns and cities to London as a result of a £70m improvement programme
Completion of the £10m scheme to modernise the railway between Shrewsbury and Wrexham.
As well as these recent major milestones over 5,000 other projects have been completed over the last four and a half years (since the start of our current funding period called CP4 – 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2014). Significant investments in the Scottish network over the last four years include:
The completion of the £300m Airdrie-Bathgate line in 2010
The completion of our 10-year, £130m refurbishment of the Forth Bridge in 2011
The £12m electrification of the Paisley Canal line in 2012
The £120m renewal of Edinburgh Waverley’s glass roof in 2012.
Over the six months to 30 September:
Revenue remained static at £3.267bn (£3.167bn for same period, 2012)
Operating profit remained static at £1.199bn (£1.227bn last year)
Profit after tax was £870m (£563m last year. Increase owing to tax treatment and derivative gains)
Net debt stands at £30.611bn (slightly up from £30.358bn at year end)
Value of railway assets increase to £47.933bn (up from £46.411bn at year end)
Mr Butcher concluded: “We continue to invest record amounts to deliver a bigger, better railway for passengers and businesses across Britain. We are also driving down the cost of running Britain’s railway to help make it more affordable in the years ahead. Train performance is still at high levels by historical standards, but has fallen behind our targets as we struggle to get more and more out of an ever overloaded network.”
Source:- Network Rail
Tags: Railway News
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