Rannoch Viaduct

Network Rail has announced the start of a five-year investment plan to deliver ‘a safe, green, reliable railway for Scotland’s passengers, freight customers and taxpayers’, saying that between April 2024 and March 2029 £4.8 billion will be invested throughout the country to ‘improve punctuality, reduce delays, and make Scotland’s railway system more resilient in the face of our changing weather’.

The plan announced includes: over £2 billion of investment in renewing key infrastructure; over £1 billion in maintaining Scotland’s Railway; increased investment in drainage systems and more drainage engineers; and continued investment in new technology to help monitor the impact of extreme weather.

There will also be: the installation of more remote-monitoring equipment to give early warning of potential issues; dedicated plans for taking climate action and reducing the railway’s carbon footprint; and ambitious plans to reduce costs across Scotland’s Railway by adopting new ways of working.

Alex Hynes, managing director of Scotland’s Railway (a group made up of around 150 different organisations and suppliers from throughout the rail industry in Scotland), said: “The plan we have announced will help us deliver a safe and reliable railway for our customers and one that supports the social and economic growth of the communities we serve. We will also work closely with our industry partners and government to ensure we deliver a value for money railway for the taxpayers who fund us while improving the service we offer to passengers and freight customers.”

Network Rail is funded in five-year cycles, called control periods, with the current one (CP7) running from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029. Throughout Britain, Network Rail will invest a total of £45.4 billion over the course of Control Period 7.