Billion pound plans for East Midlands' railway

A multi-billion pound plan to operate, maintain and renew the region's train lines has been unveiled by a rail operator.

Network Rail has published its ‘Control Period 6’ or CP6’ plan - an ambitious five-year plan to improve Britain’s railway over the five years to 2024, which includes the London North Eastern and East Midlands (LNE and EM) route.

Rob McIntosh, The company’s managing director for LNE and EM, said: “I am determined that CP6 will be the dawn of a new era on the UK rail network.

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“Our route is creating real momentum towards maximising the transformative opportunities that CP6 presents us, building on the challenges in CP5 to deliver a safer and more reliable railway for our colleagues, customers and passengers.

“We are already delivering our maintenance more efficiently than ever before - train delay minutes attributed to the route and the number of performance affecting incidents is lower than they have ever been, and we must continue to improve the safety of our railway as the traffic and passenger numbers grow.”

The rail operator says the plan will bring benefits including contributing to economic growth and helping to create jobs and housing by delivering a railway that meets the needs of the economies and communities the train line serves.

As a result of the proposals, Network Rail claims the railway will be more reliable, more cost efficient, will have more capacity and will build on its reputation as a safe railway.

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The plans for the London North Eastern and East Midlands route – which serves from the Scottish Border to London King’s Cross and Sheffield to St Pancras – use a multi-billion pound settlement to improve reliability, safety and train performance.

The plans will -

n Reduce service affecting infrastructure failures by 9.9 per cent

n Improve workforce safety by 74 per cent

n Build upon our already close working relationships with TOC’s with the creation of a further joint business plan.

n Enable third party investment in the railway to be easier, faster and more customer focussed

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The Railway Upgrade Plan makes up two-thirds of Network Rail’s £40bn spending priorities for the five years to 2019 and represents the biggest sustained programme of rail modernisation since the Victoria era.