London North

London North Western (LNW) is the Backbone of Britain. It runs from London Euston and Marylebone in the South through the Chiltern and West Midlands regions, the North West of England and Cumbria before joining with Scotland at Gretna. It is home to the West Coast Mainline, the busiest mixed-use railway in Europe and Britain’s economic spine connecting our main cities - London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Our strategic vision for CP6 is “One team safely delivering brilliant services for customers and taxpayers.” This will guide us through the challenges ahead, which are akin to building the railway equivalent of a new Wembley Stadium every six months while continuing to stage more and more matches.

Commuter demand for rail travel into Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and London is forecast to grow significantly over the next 20 to 30 years. We need to build a bigger railway to cater for that growing demand while keeping existing services running on time, every time.

There will be more passengers and freight to carry on the West Coast - all while managing the impact of HS2 being constructed. That is a major challenge which we will rise to as an industry by holding firmly to our vision, above. Once built HS2 will add much-needed extra capacity on the West Coast. Without HS2 the West Coast will be unable to cater for forecast growth in customer demand beyond the mid-2020s.

Our Great North Rail Project will turn its focus to the Transpennine Route Upgrade, improving connections between Leeds and Manchester. A number of external parties are also drawing up plans for developments on Cumbria’s “energy coast.” Major rail improvements would be required to facilitate these schemes, and additional funding would need to be forthcoming.

Martin FrobisherRoute Managing Director London North Western

Western

Benefits to our passengersOur team will deliver brilliant service to customers through first-class asset management. We will make investments in asset remote condition monitoring and improving our engineering tools. This will provide improvements in train performance to each and every train operator within the route, providing better journeys for passengers.

Benefits to economyLNW is the Backbone of Britain. We connect commuters with jobs, products to market and people with loved ones. The West Coast Main Line is essential to Britain’s future. By improving performance and boosting capacity we will help facilitate further economic growth in future. By continuing to deliver the Great North Rail Project and helping shape plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail, we are moving the major cities of the North closer together.

This is creating new jobs and other opportunities across the North. Likewise in the Midlands, by delivering planned upgrades and helping shape and develop the Midlands Rail Hub plan, we will better connect centres within this region and further afield. On Cumbria’s “energy coast” railway upgrades are key to unlocking the nationally-important developments being planned by various external investors (see ‘Planning for the future’ section).

At a glanceOne team safely delivering brilliant services for customers and taxpayers.

£2.5bn spent on renewals and refurbishment in CP5

24% of Britain’s railway

728 level crossings

6,009 train services per day

246.5m annual rail passenger journeys

7,100 bridges

159 signal boxes

571 stations

4,500 miles of track

6,853 employees

HS2

Electrification

Performance

Assets

Safety

• We will support the safe and efficient construction of HS2

• We are increasing our teams to maintain 250 miles of newly electrified railway

• In most cases, we aim to maintain or better current performance levels even as new fleets and timetables are introduced and HS2 is constructed

• We aim to continue improving the reliability of our assets, reducing the number of service-affecting failures by at least 1% a year

• We aim to achieve world-class safety performance by reducing our Lost-Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) by two thirds over CP6

Following engagement meetings and workshops in 2016 and 2017, we are continuing our dialogue with stakeholders to make sure we have fully captured their needs and aspirations, and we are exploring approaches to best balance the various competing priorities.

As part of this process of developing our business plan, we have committed to updating our assessment of stakeholder needs and develop our approach to make sure we maintain visibility of them and to promote an open, transparent dialogue on the feasibility of aspirational schemes.

The LNW route business has a solid history of attracting third party funding for railway enhancements. In the first three years of CP5, £356m of third party enhancement funding was invested. Of this, £260m related to two large projects - Birmingham New Street and our new Bicester-Oxford link enabling new services from Oxford to London Marylebone. A further £96m was spent on wider network and station upgrades.

To supplement the available central government funding, LNW has developed a business development strategy to attract increased levels of third party. We have introduced a business development director to lead this strategy.

Our vision for CP6 is to explore every opportunity to secure funding for projects to grow the railway. Our priorities will be to secure funding for rail enhancements to:• Accommodate passenger and freight growth: this would include passenger capacity issues at stations, depots / stabling works

and enabling longer or more trains.• Support economic growth across the West Midlands and the North West• Meet local needs identified by our partners and stakeholders

We intend to explore all potential opportunities for third party funding or financing, working with a wide range of bodies, including businesses, local authorities and sub-national transport bodies.

Our Stakeholder engagement

Sources of additional funding

Stakeholder priorities• Deliver capacity improvements to time and budget• Support delivery of HS2• Achieve agreed performance metrics and minimise delays

• Reduce journey times• Deliver better stations and improve network capacity

Our plans for CP6

Fishguard & Goodwick

Cairnryan

Ilkeston

Northern Powerhouse Rail: As well as all the CP5 improvements delivered by the Great North Rail Project and anticipated Transpennine Route Upgrade in CP6, we are currently developing Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) for Transport for the North and the Department for Transport. NPR seeks to rebalance Britain’s economy northwards by bringing faster, more frequent train services between Leeds, Manchester, Manchester Airport, Hull, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle.

West Coast: HS2’s primary purpose is to bring greater capacity to the full West Coast main line. With West Coast demand for freight and passenger rail travel forecast to double over the next two decades, HS2 is just one part of the solution.

West Midlands and Chiltern: Studies indicate that by 2043 demand for rail travel (largely commuters) in the West Midlands is set to significantly increase on the Chiltern route between Birmingham and London Marylebone. The Midlands Rail Hub, which Network Rail is developing for Midlands Connect, proposes capacity-increasing solutions.

Planning for the future - CP6 and beyond