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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.

  • Infrastructure and Projects Authority annual report 2022

    20/07/2022
    Infrastructure and Projects Authority SearchResearchItems

    Delivery of later phases of the flagship East West Rail scheme, to restore a direct ‘Varsity Line’ rail link between Oxford and Cambridge, has been declared “unachievable” by this key government body. In its annual report on the Government’s major schemes portfolio for 2021-22, the IPA provides a health rating to some 235 projects (ranging from rail and road to hospitals, housing and defence), with a total life cost of £678 billion. Although Phase 1 of EWR to rebuild a disused rail corridor between Bicester and Bletchley by 2024 is already under construction, Phases 2 (Bletchley-Bedford) and 3 (Bedford-Cambridge), which remain in the design stage, have now been given red ratings. It represents a second major blow for the project in less than a month, after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed on July 11 that both phases could soon be scrapped to save some £3.5bn. In its response to the IPA report, EWR confirmed that the project was “under review”.

  • Annual Report of Health and Safety on Britain’s Railways 2021-22

    14/07/2022
    Office of Rail and Road (ORR) SearchResearchItems

    A marked improvement in track worker safety is the highlight of this year’s ORR annual report on health and safety. But against this backdrop, the regulator “remains concerned” over the impact on safety of the proposed 20% headcount reduction at Network Rail. Ensuring that the industry remains focused on the basics of health and safety management, as it prepares for reform and substantial change, is a key message. The report also highlights Britain’s standing of having one of the safest railways in Europe, and that risk on the railway is at an all-time low.

  • The Good Life

    01/07/2022
    Urban Transport Group SearchResearchItems

    A new era for suburbs should be supported by green, sustainable transport choices for all journeys and all people, to reflect the diversity of suburban life. The UTG argues that although around 80% of Britons live in suburbs, “these areas are often neglected” when it comes to transport planning, “drowned out on either side by the powerful voices of the city and the countryside”. The report urges policymakers to join the dots between transport and the decarbonisation of the suburbs more widely. Solutions could range from using community microgrids to power homes and transport, to the integration of blue and green assets (such as rain gardens and green roofs) into transport infrastructure.

  • The Transpennine Route Upgrade Programme

    01/07/2022
    National Audit Office SearchResearchItems

    The Department for Transport faces the risk of further delays and cost increases to the TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU). This influential report from the National Audit Office reveals that nearly 20% of the £1 billion funding released for the project so far has already been wasted on unnecessary work, because rail ministers keep changing their minds. And while the NAO says the DfT has now put the TRU on a firmer footing, it warns that it is “not yet clear how the upgrade’s intended benefits will be achieved”. It adds that while the DfT has “developed a clear case” for investment in the route, it has “taken too long to decide how to upgrade it”. As a result, in the pre-COVID decade, annual passenger journeys increased from 106 million to 137 million, resulting in overcrowding. In May, the DfT forecast that the TRU will cost £9 billion to £11.5bn and will be completed between 2036-41.

  • National Rail Strikes June 2022: The Passenger Experience

    20/06/2022
    Transport Focus SearchResearchItems

    Three key recommendations to ease the pain for passengers from rail strikes have been made by Transport Focus. The passenger watchdog calls on the rail industry to consider how to compensate season ticket holders who do not travel on non-strike days due to a late start to the service, or who travel on a strike day (or the day following) but arrive significantly later than normal. It also urges operators to clarify the National Rail Conditions of Travel, whereby if a passenger is entitled to a refund for their unused outward ticket, they can also have their money back on the ticket for their return leg (or vice versa). Lastly, efforts must be increased to help passengers understand when the service will start later, or finish earlier - including on the day after strike action.

  • Annual Report of Health and Safety on Britain’s Railways

    13/07/2021
    Office of Rail and Road (ORR) SearchResearchItems

    Britain’s rail industry responded extremely well to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to the ORR. The regulator says the entire sector reacted quickly and worked collaboratively to respond to significant challenges posed by the pandemic to keep people and goods on the move. However, the ORR warns that trackworker safety must remain a top priority following the deaths of three rail employees in 2020-21. Meanwhile, the fatal derailment at Carmont after heavy rainfall last August also highlights the need for a continued focus on safety management and for Network Rail to effectively manage its infrastructure, with particular focus on earthworks and drainage. On performance and reliability, the ORR says there has been an improvement of 15 percentage points, as fewer trains and passengers contributed to 80% of trains arriving on time nationally. It wants NR to use the data it has gathered on the relationship between network usage, capacity and performance, and a ‘whole system approach’ to demonstrate how these activities will lead to actual improvements in punctuality. Finally, the ORR finds that NR is on track to deliver CP6 efficiency targets, having delivered £710 million worth of savings in 2020-21 against a target of £570m. However, it warns that risk funds are lower than planned, particularly in Scotland, and that NR now needs a clear plan for how future financial risks will be managed.

  • Crossrail – a progress update

    09/07/2021
    National Audit Office SearchResearchItems

    Crossrail could cost up to £218 million more than the funding available, reports the National Audit Office in its latest progress report on the mega-project. The NAO puts Crossrail’s forecast cost (not including new trains and depot) at £18.9 billion, compared with the 2010 budget of £14.8bn. That is also some £1.9bn higher than when the NAO reported in May 2019. It means the project would be 28% nominally more expensive than expected in 2010, as well as potentially three years late by the time it opens some time in 2022.

  • Setting Regional Budgets for Rail Investment

    09/07/2021
    Greengauge 21 SearchResearchItems

    A population-based approach taken by the National Infrastructure Commission “heralds a serious rebalancing of rail expenditure away from London and the South East”, says Greengauge 21. The report finds that while the South East and Wales account for 56% of the population, they will receive a £25 billion rail enhancement over the next 25 years. This compares to the North and Midlands, which account for 44% of the population but will receive £86.2bn once planned projects including HS2 Phase 2b and Northern Powerhouse Rail are included. It argues that this approach is fairer than the past practice of allocating transport budgets to where congestion is highest, but that it remains poor at addressing decarbonisation “because of the uneven coverage of electrified railways across the nation”. Greengauge 21 adds that south west England and Wales deserve a 25% budget uplift “to overcome the weaknesses of unimproved networks and reliance on diesel-powered trains”.

  • Rail Freight: Building a Stronger, Greener Future for Britain

    08/07/2021
    Rail Delivery Group SearchResearchItems

    A regulatory framework that “enables continued private sector investment and helps more freight customers choose to move their goods by rail” is among the recommendations made by the RDG. Set against the backdrop of the creation of Great British Railways, the report argues that the restructured railway “must create a platform for rail freight to build on its successes”. Long-term access charges and a protected access regime are among the factors that the RDG lists as key to supporting modal shift to rail. It also argues that a central point of co-ordination is needed that maintains a GB-wide approach to network planning.

  • Overview of the English Rail System

    07/07/2021
    House of Commons SearchResearchItems

    The Department for Transport has “neither the urgency nor appreciates the scale of the challenge ahead” regarding the future of rail. That’s the damning verdict of MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, whose report highlights how delivery of services has “not sufficiently focused on the needs of passengers”, while the network in England has “suffered from a lack of strategic direction and accountability for many years”. The document is highly critical that an increase in government support since 2015, followed by an additional £8.5 billion provided from the public purse since the start of the pandemic, has not been matched by adequate transparency over costs and revenues “to inform proper oversight”. It adds that the DfT “lacks a convincing and timely plan for encouraging passengers back to the railway”, and also questions whether its transitionary arrangements to replace franchising with National Rail Contracts fairly distributes risk between government and operators. Furthermore, the PAC says that a “disappointing lack of progress” on electrification threatens the Government’s own decarbonisation targets.

  • Passenger rail usage – 2020-21 Quarter 4

    03/06/2021
    Office of Rail and Road (ORR) SearchResearchItems

    Restrictions imposed because of the Coronavirus pandemic caused annual passenger numbers to fall to their lowest level since at least 1872 (when records began). Figures released by the Office of Rail and Road confirm that just 388 million passenger journeys were made from April 1 2020-March 31 2021, compared with more than 1.7 billion in the previous 12 months. With passenger numbers at just 22% of pre-pandemic levels, revenue plummeted to £1.9 billion, compared with £10.4bn in 2019-20. TfL Rail, London Overground and c2c were the only operators to reach at least 30% of the number of journeys recorded on their network in 2019-20. Meanwhile, ScotRail (14.9%) and TfW Rail (15.8%) recorded the lowest levels of relative usage among franchised operators.

  • Estimates of station usage 2019-20

    01/04/2021
    Office of Rail and Road (ORR) SearchResearchItems

    London Waterloo remains Britain’s busiest station for the 16th year running with an estimated 86.9 million entries and exits between April 2019 and March 2020. This was 7.3 million less than the previous year due to the impact of strike action and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of Britain’s 2,567 stations the least used was Berney Arms in Norfolk with 42 entries and exits. Station usage fell by 90% in 2019-20 due to the lines serving the station being closed as part of the Wherry Lines resignalling project.

  • Meeting the Rail Needs of the Midlands and the North - a Review

    03/02/2021
    Greengauge 21 SearchResearchItems

    Greengauge21 has drawn extensively on previous research to make two main recommendations in this review of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Rail Needs report. As well as repeating its assertion that an X-shaped network should be developed for HS2 by adding a south western leg to Bristol and south Wales, Greengauge21 is also once again calling for a major rethink of plans for the eastern leg between the West Midlands and Yorkshire. It urges the NIC and government to consider the option of blending the upgrade and electrification of existing lines alongside “some better though out high-speed construction”. Specifically, this would entail extending HS2 to Nottingham city centre and then Newark from where a high-speed line could be built within the East Coast Main Line corridor. Services for Derby, Sheffield and Leeds would use the existing Midland Main Line corridor so that city centres will be more directly served by HS2 services and so that connectivity benefits can be delivered quicker cheaper and more quickly.

  • High Speed Rail and Nature Networks

    15/01/2021
    High Speed Rail Group SearchResearchItems

    HS2 is just as much an environmental project as a transport or economic one, says this latest report from The High Speed Rail Group. While there will inevitably be visible impacts during construction of HS2, the report cites the nature reserves that have been nurtured alongside the route of HS1 as an example of how building the railway can ‘go hand in hand’ with nature restoration. HSRG concludes that HS2 will not only take these ambitions even further but will also increasingly connect people to nature as more people wish to access wilder areas by sustainable transport. The report also highlights areas in which HSRG views HS2 Ltd to be at the centre of new thinking and best practice such as its usage of ‘green data’ across the supply chain.

  • Rail for All

    12/01/2021
    Scottish Greens SearchResearchItems

    A rail tunnel under the Firth of Forth is among the initiatives proposed by the Scottish Green Party, in its call for a £22 billion investment in the country’s railways. The party wants all communities of more than 5,000 people to be connected to the national network and for decision-making processes to be rebalanced in favour of rail. The report argues that there should be one publicly owned operator and that a taskforce should plan and steer expansion, improvement and the delivery of a modern zero-carbon rail network.

  • The UK’s new Green Age

    01/01/2021
    Alstom Transport SearchResearchItems

    Alstom has called for a £10bn investment programme to be launched in UK rail and mass transit systems in order to decarbonise the transport sector and stimulate the post-COVID-19 economy. The company’s new report also reveals the scale of how far the UK has fallen behind other European countries for comparable infrastructure with France having more than twice as many light rail, tram and metro systems than in Britain while Germany has four times as many. Elsewhere, it argues for an acceleration of rail schemes including Northern Powerhouse Rail and Midlands Engine plus the roll out of 300-400 hydrogen trains to replace diesel units.

  • The TfL Independent Review

    01/12/2020
    TC Chew, Stephen Glaister, Bridget Rosewell and Jonathan Taylor - December 2020 SearchResearchItems

    Commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Transport for London Board in July 2020, this independent review of TfL’s finances suggests that the body was already facing a funding gap before the Coronavirus pandemic of between £500 million-£1 billion from the mid-2020s. This could now be as high as £2bn if a median passenger projection figure is taken of long-term travel demand remaining 20% below previous forecasts. To resolve this gap the review suggests that additional funding should be sought from residents, consumers and drivers, as well as from a direct government grant. TfL has received two six-month financial support agreements from Government since last March. The Government’s own review into TfL’s finance that has been conducted by KMPG is yet to be released.

  • Back on Track

    24/11/2020
    National Skills Academy for Rail and the City & Guilds Group SearchResearchItems

    to ten years, which will peak in 2025. It also exposes the added hurdles of an ageing workforce with some 28% of current rail workers aged over 50, and a continued failure to attract a diverse range of applicants with only 16% of the workforce being female. Among the report’s seven principal recommendations is the need for government and relevant partners to consider launching an awareness raising campaign, the utilisation of the green agenda to attract a new generation of people in the industry, and to make mid-career entry to the industry and skills-transfer more frictionless.

  • Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan

    28/07/2020
    Transport Scotland SearchResearchItems

    Scottish Transport Minister Michael Matheson unveiled ambitious plans to electrify the main lines to Inverness, Aberdeen and Carlisle via Dumfries on July 28. The plan forms part of a strategy to decarbonise rail passenger services in Scotland by 2035 – five years ahead of the UK target. TS has not yet costed the proposal to electrify some 1,616 single-track kilometres (stkm) which it expects to be authorised in stages. But using the Railway Industry Association’s latest cost estimates of electrification schemes, it would equate to somewhere in the region of £2.4 billion. For lines that do not justify electrification such as the West Highland and Far North Lines a combination of hydrogen or battery-powered trains would be used.

  • Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20

    21/07/2020
    HS2 Ltd SearchResearchItems

    Spending on High Speed 2 increased from £2.08 billion in 2018-19 to £2.54bn in 2019-20, with capital expenditure increasing from £1.82bn to £2.3bn and the value of its net assets doubling from £2.8bn to £5.6bn. The increases reflect ongoing enabling works and the moblisation of main works civil engineering contractors for Phase 1 of the London from London to Birmingham, says HS2 Ltd in its latest annual report and accounts. HS2 also achieved most of its key performance indicators while carbon emissions fell from 1,419 tonnes to 1,002 tonnes. HS2 Chief Executive Mark Thurston received total remuneration of £659,416, chief financial officer Michael Bradley £355,044, and chairman Allan Cook £266,770 during the financial year. The company had 483 female employees and 672 male staff.

  • Annual Report of Health and Safety Performance on Britain’s Railways 2019/20

    14/07/2020
    Office of Rail and Road (ORR) SearchResearchItems

    Network Rail’s plans to address climate change and increase resilience to extreme weather are not keeping pace with the frequency and severity of weather events, warns the ORR. In its annual health and safety report ORR says that although safety on Britain’s railways has improved over the last year, the number of earthwork failures and trains striking objects increased almost four-fold in 2019-20 compared to the year before. Improvements include in level crossing safety, with just two deaths over the year (the same as 2018-29), while the risk of Signals Passed at Danger has levelled out. Two key Improvement Notices were issued to NR to improve track worker safety following the deaths of four rail workers in 2019-20

  • Annual assessment of Network Rail April 2019-March 2020

    02/07/2020
    Office of Rail and Road (ORR) SearchResearchItems

    Network Rail has saved more than £385 million in the first year of CP6, according to the ORR’s annual assessment of the infrastructure manager. NR is tasked with delivering total efficiency savings of £3.5bn by the end of CP6 in 2024, and the regulator says it beat its target for 2019-20. Meanwhile, passenger performance in terms of delays attributed to NR improved in the Scotland and Wales & Western regions (although the former was still below target). Performance was also said to be good on the Southern region. However, it was lower than target in the North West & Central and Eastern regions. Freight performance also suffered, with a Freight Delivery Metric of 92.8% compared with a target of 94%.

  • HS2 – Towards a zero carbon future

    01/11/2019
    High Speed Rail Industry Leaders SearchResearchItems

    Building HS2 is the only way to provide the rail capacity needed to achieve significant modal shift from road and air, and to reduce carbon emissions. That is the conclusion drawn by Ralph Smyth, the author of a new independent report on HS2’s carbon impact. Commissioned by HSRIL, the report says that “failing to deliver HS2 and maximise its carbon benefits could jeopardise achieving climate-friendly transport for another generation”. It also points out that HS2 is already outperforming its carbon targets, and that outperformance on initial forecasts in the construction phase could be as great as 30%. Smyth led the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s engagement on the new railway, and was the only person permitted to petition against HS2 legislation regarding its climate change impact.

  • Rail Reform: A Guiding Mind

    01/11/2019
    All Party Parliamentary Rail Group SearchResearchItems

    APPRG has called for greater clarity of thinking on the relationship between any central ‘controlling mind’ (as proposed by the Rail Review’s independent chairman Keith Williams) and devolved transport bodies. The group also proposes that future government rail policy incorporates the needs of passengers, freight customers, operators and government, in its Rail Reform: A Guiding Mind report published in early November. It adds that the roles of local and central government as policy makers should continue, as should the Office of Rail and Road’s for safety and economic regulation. Different models of passenger service delivery should also be explored - for example, moving the East Coast Main Line to an open access auction model or adopting a Switzerland-style ‘clockface’ timetabling approach.