The government should also ensure there are sufficient rolling stock orders to keep factories open and maintain the minimum level of investment in electrification schemes needed to decarbonise by 2050, said the Railway Industry Association (RIA) in its pre-budget submission to the treasury this week (10 September).
“Historically, the state of transport connections has always underpinned – or undermined – economic growth. As the National Infrastructure Commission has argued, rail has a crucial role to play in enabling large numbers of people to access city centres, and often better jobs,” the submission said.
“Following the cumulative challenges of Covid, reversals in long-standing rail investment plans and budgetary pressures from inflation, many UK-based rail supply businesses are now in a fragile position… To get the best value, the UK needs to act now to define, protect and grow domestic capability to deliver the rail network that will be needed in the decades to come.”
The organisation’s ‘asks’ include calls for a “steady pipeline” of capital projects and rail investment to lower costs, create jobs, boost growth and secure the UK’s industrial and manufacturing capacity.
RIA has more than 360 companies working across the whole of railway supply, including major firms such as Hitachi Rail, Jacobs and Babcock.
Commenting on the body’s submission ahead of the budget on 30 October, chief executive Darren Caplan said: “The Railway Industry Association and our members acknowledge that the government is having to make difficult decisions ahead of the budget on 30 October. However, as we say in our submission, we would urge chancellor Rachel Reeves to see UK rail as an investment in the economy rather than just a cost, supporting jobs, GVA (gross value added), treasury revenues and as an enabler of growth in other sectors.
“Boosting the railway network is crucial to the economy, local growth, decarbonisation and providing social value to communities around the country. And so we strongly encourage Reeves to remember that capital projects including rail can help her ambition to drive the government’s headline priority of powering economic growth.”
The “small number” of key decisions should include completing HS2 tunnels between Euston and Old Oak Common, the organisation said. Without that infrastructure, the line from Birmingham New Street would terminate at the West London station, almost 9km from Central London. This would leave the UK without sufficient North-South capacity for the future, Caplan said.
“The decision must be made now, as tunnel-boring machines will not be able to dig through to Euston once the portal at Old Oak Common is sealed, a decision which cannot be reversed without great expense and disruption,” the submission said.
News reports earlier this year suggested the previous government would be backing the tunnels, but at an added cost of a further £1bn on top of the already bloated £66bn cost of the London to Birmingham line.
The submission also called for new rolling stock orders to be brought forward to help keep factories open, securing domestic capability during a current dip in orders while simultaneously providing an opportunity to replace some of the oldest passenger diesel rolling stock with privately financed battery trains. 515 vehicle coaches will need to be replaced each year to meet the UK’s net zero target, it added.
About 350km of single track also needs to be electrified each year to keep net zero on track, the submission said, including schemes on the Midland Main Line and in Scotland. A total of 8,600km of single track needs to be electrified if the UK is to exploit the capabilities of battery-electric bi-mode trains, according to RIA research, on top of the current 14,360km.
“Whilst public spending may be constrained, it is essential that capital projects that will be crucial to the country’s future are not cut. Short-term cuts may result in a marginally better outlook on the balance sheet this year, but in the long term it will increase costs, whilst simultaneously reducing growth and delaying any immediate economic benefits,” the submission said. “These projects are the catalysts to the economic growth that the government has stated as its goal, and cannot be cut.”
Calls in the submission include setting a “smooth investment trajectory across key assets that ends ‘boom and bust’ and improves supply chain capability and efficiency”, and leveraging private investment “by setting out a clear policy and playbook showing how and where the government will facilitate its use in the rail network”.
“UK rail is crucial to the government’s sustainability and Industrial Strategy aspirations, and we would encourage ministers to be positive about the future role the industry can play with the right policy framework and political ambition,” said Caplan.
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