Member Article

Network Rail debt rises under investment strategy

Network Rail has reported a slight fall in profits and an increase in debts due to increased investment in the network.

The organisation said it continued investing with a £2.1bn outlay in the half year, particularly focussed on the Reading Station area and works on the East Coast main line and West Coast main line.

Net debt increased during the year from £25,049m to £27,281m, and Network Rail said the country’s railway infrastructure was now valued at £45.3bn, compared with the last valuation of £43.1bn.

Patrick Butcher, Network Rail’s group finance director said: “The railway continues to see strong traffic growth which provides us with the challenge of getting the balance right between capacity, reliability and efficiency. We have seen growth on the network of 5% a year for a decade and this is set to continue. That means we continue to become more efficient so we can continue to invest to meet this growth.

“This, combined with the traffic growth allow us to sustain high levels of capital investment, delivering £2.1bn of worth of capital work in the six months.

“Our daily focus remains on running safe, reliable and efficient railway service for passengers and freight users alike.

“Whilst train punctuality is at high, historical levels Network Rail recognises that on parts of network performance is not as good as it should be. As we have before, we will continue to take any appropriate action to improve services.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .