Rail modernisation plans detailed

Known as the High Level Output Specification programme, the plans include the electrification of the Midland Main Line in what was hailed by Prime Minister David Cameron as the 'biggest modernisation of our railways since the Victorian era'. The announcement covers the period 2014-19. A total of £5.2 billion worth of projects has already been committed to for this period. These include completion of the ongoing Crossrail and Thameslink schemes, and electrification between London and Cardiff, Manchester to Liverpool and Preston and across the Pennines. The £4.2 billion worth of new schemes include: upgrades to stations and tracks creating enough capacity around cities for an additional 140,000 daily rail commutes at peak times. This includes £350 million for lengthening of platforms at London's Waterloo station; faster journeys and more train capacity from £240 million of improvements along the East Coast Main Line from north east England down through Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire to London; and a new £500 million rail link between the Great Western Main Line and Heathrow. There will also be creation of a high-capacity "electric spine" running from Yorkshire and the West Midlands to south coast ports. This comprises an £800 million electrification and upgrade from Sheffield - through Nottingham, Derby and Leicester - to Bedford, completing the full electrification of the Midland Main Line out of London St Pancras and electrification of the lines from Nuneaton and Bedford to Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke and Southampton. Electric rail will be taken beyond Cardiff to Swansea, completing the full electrification of the Great Western Main Line out of London Paddington at a total cost of more than £600 million, and electrifying the Welsh Valley lines, including Ebbw Vale, Maesteg and the Vale of Glamorgan; and there will be completion in full of the so called Northern Hub cluster of rail enhancements with the approval of £322 million of outstanding track and capacity upgrades across Manchester city centre, Manchester Airport and across to Liverpool.