R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

S t a t i o n s . We have committed to spend £128M over fi ve
ye a rs to bring stations back into a condition which creates an
i nviting environment for passengers and one that can be
maintained by the station opera t o r.The amounts spent at
each location vary with the extent of disrepair that we have
i n h e ri t e d .At some of the newer stations, such as Camelon,
nothing is required, while at others ,l i ke Glasgow Queen Street
for example, we are spending over £15M.Wo rk on the whole
p r o g ramme will be completed during the spring of 2001.
Renewals. Railway assets work in a hostile environment
and, for this reason,a programme of renewals has been put
in place designed to renew each item before it begins to
adversely affect performance. A good example of this is the
ongoing renewal of the signalling equipment from Glasgow
Queen Street towards Edinburgh and Cumbernauld which
includes additional bi-directional facilities.
Tables of expenditure to maintain and renew the assets
are shown on page 139.
9.4
9.4 Developing the network
Over the past 12 months we have developed an ambitious
programme to deliver customer, passenger and societal
expectations and to contribute substantially to achieving
Integrated Transport Policy objectives.
Growing the capacity and capability of the
commercial network
A series of strategies has been developed to identify what
will be needed to meet forecast demands for passengers
and freight over the next ten years,and to compare this
against the existing capacity and capability of the current
network.In the past 12 months,Killiecrankie Tunnel between
Perth and Inverness has been reprofiled to allow for
containerised traffic.This has permitted Safeway to supply its
supermarkets in the Highlands by rail.We are also preparing
the WCML Route from Coatbridge–London to be available
for W10 gauge.This will be complete from
Coatbridge–Daventry for June 1999 and to London
(Willesden Junction) in December 1999. We are also
preparing the ECML and Edinburgh–Shotts–Coatbridge
route to carry W9 vehicles.We are currently providing the
facilities which will be required by ScotRail later this year to
support their investment in three-car trains to provide a
high-quality 15-minute interval Glasgow–Edinburgh service,
including an upgrade at Haymar ket Depot near Edinburgh.
Working with our train operating customers, we expect
to identify further opportunities for commercial growth,such
as between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
We have committed
to spend £128M
over five years to
bring stations back
into a condition
which creates an
inviting environment
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