An ambitious upgrade plan, with more than £50bn of investment, will see the our railway system transformed for the 21st century
Challenges and full capacity
In the first half of the 19th century the advent of the railways reinvented Britain. Steam trains fuelled industrialisation, propelling the country centre stage globally. Pioneering engineers such as George Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel became household names.
Some 200 years on, and the inventiveness and ingenuity that marked out that period in Britain’s rail history is called for again.
Britain’s rail companies have come together to deliver an ambitious £50 billion-plus Railway Upgrade Plan that will help to transform the nation’s passenger trains and freight services. This means upgraded trains, tracks and signalling. Alongside this, modern methods for ticket payment will streamline the industry. The net result will be more trains, faster services and less disruption. In other words, a railway system betterbetter placed to respond to thehe needs of passengers andd the coun-country. This should proveprove to be music to the earsars of those commuters frustratedustrated by delays — an inescapablescapable fact of life for manyy travel-travelling in and outut of London for work each day.
But i t wi l l also be a boon to the economic prosperity of the nation. Our railways contrib-bute up to £ 1 00.. 11 billion to t hh ee UK e c o n o mm yy every year. In many ways rail is struggling under the weight of its own success. Unprecedented growth in the past 20 years — journeys have doubled, while there has been a 61 per cent rise in commuters using trains to travel to work since 2002 — means volume on Britain’s 20,000 miles of track is often at full capacity on some parts of the network.
As our population continues to grow, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) estimates that rail journeys are expected to double again by 2040. This means the current system is at tipping point.
A network that is half the size it was 60 years ago can no longer absorb the increased volume. Thankfully, the upgrade plan is helping to meet these challenges. Faster electric trains are replacing the older rolling stock; journey times are being cut; and because trains are more efficient, maintenance is reduced, thus cutting delays.
TT ee cc h n o l o g y is pp ll aayy i n g a part. ThanThanks to technoll oo gg ii cc a l advancemm ee nn tt ss , superior signallinsignalling systems are pushinpushing a range of benebenefits. In future, in-in-cab digital signn aa l l i n g could aallow trains to run closer together, much faster and more safely, while for now, enhanced traffic manage - ment systems minimise the ththreats of dis- ruption. Additionally, 12 state-of-the-art Rail Operating Centres will provide quicker solutions to problems. Signal boxes are being phased out, at a considerable saving to the taxpayer.
Technology also allows customers to get quicker and more reliable information — GPS data provides better details about a train’s location, enabling more accurate arrival times.
The digital age has revolutionised every aspect of modern life. When consumers