New trains and extra services promised in rail investment report 

In total, an estimated £20 billion will be invested in running and upgrading the railway in 2020.

Improvements due to be delivered next year include:

• Scotland: The £120million major redevelopment of Glasgow Queen Street Station will be completed and the redevelopment of Aberdeen Station will begin.
• North of England: new and upgraded trains will be delivered for passengers travelling with TransPennine Express, Merseyrail, LNER, Northern, Hull Trains and Grand Central.
• Wales: £40 million train refurbishment programme will continue with 186 more services running on Sundays.
• Midlands: A new half-hourly service between St Pancras International and Corby will be introduced, 180 new trains with space for 50,000 additional passengers to and from Birmingham will start to run, and Wolverhampton Interchange will also open as part of a £150 million transport hub.
• East Anglia: £1.4 billion investment in 169 new trains on Greater Anglia and a £27 million route upgrade allowing longer trains to run between Cambridge and King´s Lynn. Track upgrades will enable 10 extra freight trains per day to run to Felixstowe, removing up to 760 lorries from the road.
• South West: quicker, more regular services following planned timetable change and £80 million upgrade of the sea wall in Dawlish.
• London and South of England: 90 new trains on South Western Railway and construction will start on the £150 million upgrade of Gatwick Airport station.

The investment report builds on the industry’s long-term plan to improve passenger and freight services to benefit customers, communities and the economy. Significant progress has been made since this plan was published two years ago with more than 2,500 brand new carriages already introduced and over 4,000 extra services running each week, improving journeys and better connecting communities across the country.

Further commitments made by operators since then mean that by the mid-2020s, over 11,300 extra trains a week will have been added to timetables, an overall increase of almost 10 per cent. This is alongside 8,000 new train carriages over the same period, an increase of 1,000 on previous plans and equivalent to replacing over half of the nation’s trains new for old. Passengers are also benefitting from hundreds of upgraded train carriages which are being refurbished like new.

98p of every £1 spent on tickets goes back into running and improving the railway, meaning money from fares is crucial to underpinning these improvements. Passenger numbers have doubled in the last 20 years, meaning money from fares now virtually covers the day-to-day cost of running the railway compared to a £2bn operating deficit in the late 1990s.

Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said:

“People want a better railway and we are investing in a long-term plan to make that happen. Next year, our passengers and the communities that rely on rail can expect more trains to more places and new carriages with more seats and better Wi-Fi. Those improvements will drive economic growth increase productivity and help set Britain up for success in the long term."

The railway is vital to Britain’s economic success with 1.4 million people taking trains into cities every weekday and rail freight delivering £30bn worth of goods to consumers across the country every year. As Britain leaves the European Union, improving rail connections will be vital to ensure that our economy thrives in the decades ahead.

Mike Cherry, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, said:

“Small businesses rely on Britain’s railway to meet clients, attend meetings and ensure their staff can get to work, so investment in the network is very welcome. Rail services need to be reliable, regular and well-maintained, as well as providing decent wi-fi connections and proper power points.”

With 4.8million journeys being made every day and with three trains pulling away from a station every second, increasing the number of trains and services on an already congested network is challenging. Rail companies are working together to ensure that the new services are introduced smoothly and that the benefits of this enormous investment are felt across the country.

The new investment plan comes as the ongoing independently-led Williams review into the railway prepares its final report and recommendations. In a submission to this review the rail industry offered radical proposals to reorganise the railway, increase accountability and make the fares system easier.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. Investment Report 2020 – read the full rail investment report.
    
2. The rail industry is working together to change and improve the railway today, including adding 8,000 new and hundreds more refurbished-like-new carriages – equivalent to replacing half of today’s train carriages new for old – and adding over 11,300 extra services per week to make trains more frequent.
    
3. At the same time, rail companies together are putting forward radical proposals to government to bring the rail fares system up-to-date and also, to
   ensure the right structure is in place to maximise the benefits the railway delivers for Britain for the generation. Find out more on the Big Plan Big Changes website.
    
4. In 2017, the rail industry launched In Partnership for Britain’s Prosperity which detailed how more than £50 billion of investment in the railway over the following 10 years would deliver an estimated £85billion of economic benefits.


5. New train carriages - since our previous announcement in 2018, there have been further commitments which mean that 8,000 new train carriages are being introduced, increasing the private sector investment by £1.9 billion to £15.7 billion:
   • West Midlands Train: 413 carriages (£680 million)
   • Transport for Wales: 421 carriages (£800 million)
   • East Midlands Railway: 165 carriages (£400 million)
   • West Coast (First Trenitalia): total carriage number and total investment subject to ongoing procurement process but 23 new trains committed.
   Hundreds of train carriages are also being refurbished like new on routes across the country. 1,000 more train carriages, both new and refurbished, will run in 2020 compared to 2019.
    
6. Extra services a week - since our previous announcement in 2017, there have also been further commitments to run additional services, increasing the total number of extra services a week being introduced to over 11,300:
   • Northern and TransPennine Express: 2,000 extra services a week (not included in the original 6,400 total)
   • South Western Railway: 784 extra services a week
   • West Midlands Trains: 300 extra services a week
   • Transport for Wales: 1,600 extra services a week
   • West Coast (First Trenitalia): 263 extra services a week
   From 2020, as part of the December timetable change, over 1,000 extra services a week will run.
    
7. Funding to run and improve the railway in 2020 – ORR financial data for 2017/18 shows that, excluding depreciation and payments to government, £14.9 billion was spent to run and improve the railway. We estimate that £20 billion, from passengers, the taxpayer and private sector, will go into running and improving the railway in 2020.