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Research and Reports

A database of documents and reports released by industry bodies. You can download the document by clicking on its title, and can filter reports by author or subject. If you have a report you would like to submit to the Rail Hub, please email [email protected].

 

  • Getting Cities Moving – Adaptive transport solutions for an uncertain future

    30/07/2022
    National Infrastructure Commission SearchResearchItems

    To achieve its ‘levelling up’ agenda, the Government needs a strategy to support improved productivity in cities and measures to discourage private car journeys. That’s the verdict of the NIC, which concludes that despite it being too soon to say what the exact long-term consequences of the pandemic will be on future transport needs, “it is critical that this uncertainty does not lead to paralysis and inaction”. It adds: “Mass transit systems can provide much higher capacity than cars, whether they use their own infrastructure or share the road network. “Substantial investment in new forms of mass transit may be appropriate to improve capacity and the relative attractiveness of public transport.” The Commission says it will consider the funding required for these investments and their affordability in the forthcoming second National Infrastructure Assessment.

  • National Infrastructure Assessment

    10/07/2018
    National Infrastructure Commission SearchResearchItems

    Providing long term funding “for major capacity upgrades in selected growth priority cities”, creating devolved infrastructure budgets for cities, and giving city leaders powers to deliver integrated transport strategies are among recommendations in the first National Infrastructure Assessment. The report’s recommendations also include the roll-out of nationwide full fibre broadband by 2033 together with others covering, among other things, renewable power, drought and flood resilience.

  • Freight study call for evidence

    18/01/2018
    National Infrastructure Commission SearchResearchItems

    In preparation for its forthcoming reports (an interim one this autumn and a final one in spring 2019), the National Infrastructure Commission is calling for “evidence on the future of freight in the UK”. It closes on March 5. The NIC says the study “seeks to understand the key constraints to freight distribution between cities and within cities, its wider implications on our transport systems, and the ways in which innovations… could improve the efficiency and resilience of the freight system while at the same time helping to tackle the broader issues and challenges that face our national transport network, urban centres, and population as a whole.”

  • Transport for a world city

    10/03/2016
    National Infrastructure Commission SearchResearchItems

    With London on the way to becoming a ‘megacity’ of ten million people by 2030, the National Infrastructure Commission argues that Crossrail 2 should be “taken forward as a priority”. The north east to south west route would involve 24 miles of tunnel between Tottenham Hale/New Southgate and Wimbledon, and relieve the South West London commuter routes and stations, as well as the Underground network. By reaching 10m, London’s population will have grown to 2.4m more than now (it rose over 10% between 2008 and 2015); the commuter region is also expected to grow by a million to 9.9m and jobs by 800,000. Schemes already planned will add around 30% to rail capacity compared with 2011, but that capacity is predicted to be taken by the 2020s and the NIC outlines a situation of crush crowding and station closures. The NIC recommends moving to a hybrid bill in 2019, to allow opening of Crossrail 2 in 2033.

  • High Speed North

    01/03/2016
    National Infrastructure Commission SearchResearchItems

    Pushing forward with High Speed 3 and making sure it is seen as a high-capacity network rather than just one piece of new infrastructure are among key recommendations from the National Infrastructure Commission. The report stresses the importance of cutting Manchester-Leeds journey times from 49 minutes to 30min through the building of the cross-Pennine link. However, it also recommends quicker gains through upgrading the Trans-Pennine route to bring the journey time down to 40min from 2022; it says a plan should be drawn up by Network Rail together with the Department for Transport and Transport for the North by the end of next year. Further recommendations are for HS3 to be integrated into HS2, and for redevelopment of Manchester Piccadilly. High Speed North also calls for improvements to the M1 and M56 motorways, and accelerating capacity enhancements to the M62.