Widespread criticism of the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan is ‘profoundly unhelpful’ for the rail industry, Network Rail Chief Executive Andrew Haines has told a briefing to journalists.
Since its publication in November, the plan has been widely criticised for adapting previous rail investment plans, including for the eastern leg of High Speed Two. However, Mr Haines believes the criticism of the report belies the significant investment made by the Government in the railway.
‘Those people who are prepared to say the aggregate £96 billion investment is a kick in the teeth have done us an enormous dis-service at the times the economics of the railway are challenging’ Mr Haines said. ‘The rhetoric is profoundly unhelpful.’
‘It is a huge level expenditure – it is not everything people expected, but a lot of expectations were never grounded in business cases’ Mr Haines continued. He cited as an example of the Government’s commitment the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) for the Manchester – Leeds – York route saying: ‘When I joined Network Rail 3½ years ago it weas a £3.5 billion programme – now it’s closer to £10 billion. That’s not a cost escalation – the scope has increased so it now includes, for example, full electrificati…
