Rail industry welcomes news that Midland Mainline electrification will continue to Leicestershire

5 March 2019


The Government has announced that electrification of the Midlands Mainline will extend to Leicestershire.

David Clarke, Technical Director at the Railway Industry Association (RIA), said: “We welcome the announcement today that electrification of the Midland Mainline will continue into Leicestershire and support the Government keeping electrification on the table for future enhancement projects.
 
“As this decision shows, electrification is clearly the optimal solution for intensively used rail lines, and the Railway Industry Association’s (RIA) Electrification Cost Challenge, due to be published next week, will show how we can deliver schemes even more cost effectively in future.
 
“We look forward to working further with Government to deliver a rolling programme of electrification, once the report is published”.

Notes to Editors

  1. Coverage of the announcement can be found here.
  2. About RIA: The Railway Industry Association (RIA) is the voice of the UK rail supply community. We help to grow a sustainable, high-performing, railway supply industry, and to export UK rail expertise and products. We promote and represent our members’ interests to policy makers, clients and other stakeholders in the UK and overseas. RIA has 250+ companies in membership in a sector that contributes £36 billion in economic growth and £11 billion in tax revenue each year, as well as employing 600,000 people—more than the workforce of Birmingham. It is also a growing industry with the number of rail journeys expected to double over the next 25 years and freight set to grow significantly too. RIA’s membership is active across the whole of railway supply, covering a diverse range of products and services and including both multi-national companies and SMEs (60% by number). RIA works to promote the importance of the rail system to UK plc, to help export UK expertise around the globe and to share best practice and innovation across the industry.