Railway industry responds to Prime Minister’s recovery plan speech

30 June 2020

Today the Prime Minister announced his plans to speed up infrastructure investment to ensure an economic recovery following the Coronavirus outbreak.

Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of the Railway Industry Association (RIA), said: “The Prime Minister’s speech today urged the UK to ‘build, build, build’ to ensure an economic recovery following the Coronavirus outbreak, and it was good to see plans to unblock the Manchester bottleneck mentioned. However, whilst the speech set the right tone, railway suppliers will be disappointed by the lack of specific new rail projects the Government plans to speed up.

“The railway industry will play a key role to play in any economic recovery, and so we urge the Government to announce in the coming weeks a clear pipeline of accelerated work it will support across the country to deliver economic growth, investment and jobs. Suppliers need to see specific schemes with delivery timelines so they can plan and build their project teams, delivering a world-class rail network which benefits not just rail but UK plc more widely, its economy and long-term connectivity.”

 

Notes to Editors

 

  1.  The Prime Minister's speech 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 300+ 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.