It seems that the state of the UK Railways isn’t going unnoticed (least of all when I’m asked to pay sky-high fares ), with a formal announcement today over the upgrades
Over the weekend, it was widely reported that the Midland Main Line (connecting London to Sheffield) would be electrified, but more meat on the bones has been added with today’s announcement:
- Electrification of the Midland Main Line from Bedford to Sheffield costing £800m
- Electrification of the local lines in the Welsh Valleys (the network around Cardiff), costing £600m
- Re-commitment to the electrification of the lines from London to Bristol and Cardiff, and from Manchester to Liverpool, Blackpool and Leeds
- The East Coast Main Line from London to Leeds and Newcastle will get £240m worth of upgrades to create faster journeys and capacity
- “The Northern Hub” – a series of projects around Manchester worth £322m that improve northern rail capacity to get more and faster trains across the north of England
- A new £500m rail link between the Great Western Main Line and Heathrow Airport, allowing access to London Heathrow without going into London
- The reopening of the East-West link from Oxford and Aylesbury to Milton Keynes
- Upgrades to stations and tracks creating capacity for an additional 140,000 daily rail commutes at peak times,
- Upgrading London Waterloo Mainline station to handle longer platforms
- Extra funding for the Crossrail project and Thameslink upgrade
Now, before you all get too excited, the works are not due to begin until 2014 at the earliest.
The political heavyweights are out trumping this, with David Cameron (Prime Minister) stating:
“In what is the biggest modernisation of our railways since the Victorian era, this investment will mean faster journeys, more seats, better access to stations, greater freight links and a truly world-class rail network.”
Onto the nasty part: how this is going to be paid for – and it should come as no surprise that the rail traveller will be asked to dig into their pockets again through the current fare rise plan that has been in place for some years. There are projected savings for electrification and newer rolling stock along with “efficiency savings”.
The question remains – can the paying public take yet more fare rises for 2 – 5 years without reaping the benefits? Walk up train travel is becoming increasingly expensive whilst peak time train fares are akin to extortion in some cases.
One to watch over the coming few years I suspect.
And dread the thought, there might be some aviation news later! 😉