How the rail industry is supporting south London, Surrey and Berkshire

The rail industry, including Network Rail and South West Trains, has invested over £50 billion in Britain’s rail industry and new figures show the extent to which this investment has supported south London, Surrey and Berkshire.

An artist’s impression of Waterloo International Terminal (credit: Network Rail)

Every week, Network Rail spends £100 million on improving Britain’s railway and last year, it spent over £800 million with local businesses. This investment has supported jobs and growth and has driven development and regeneration, as well as unlocking the housing supply in the above areas.

“The railway is vital to economic growth,” said Stuart Kistruck, Director of Route Asset Management at Network Rail. “On the Wessex route we are spending hundreds of millions of pounds annually to provide a safe, reliable railway. A great example of this plan in action is the £800 million Waterloo & South West Upgrade which will boost capacity at Waterloo by 30% by the end of 2018.”

Click here to see a virtual reality view of the redeveloped Interntational Terminal at Waterloo Station.

This investment has been showcased as part of the Britain Runs on Rail campaign, which aims to increase passenger and taxpayer understanding on how their money is being spent on the railways.

“In the past year alone, we have invested in customer experience improvement projects across the network delivering 1,400 extra car park spaces at our stations, state-of-the-art cycle hubs with additional cycle spaces at 36 stations, innovative video ticket machines at 91 stations and we will continue to upgrade our trains,” added Margaret Kay, Managing Director of South West Trains. “Our £210 million fleet of brand new 707 trains, providing 150 extra carriages for thousands of additional passengers will be out on the network very shortly. We will also continue to roll out our Smart card programme to make travel easier for our passengers.”

The campaign is being organised by the Rail Delivery Group, which represents all train operators.