Rail industry urges Parliamentary Transport Committee to seek an end of ‘boom and bust’
in the UK’s rail investment programme
Trade body the Railway Industry Association (RIA) told the Transport Select Committee that the
current ‘boom and bust’ system of rail funding needs to end yesterday (29 January), to benefit
passengers, taxpayers, Government and the railway sector. Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of RIA, commented:
“Rail infrastructure in the UK is being funded in
‘boom and bust’ cycles, where rail suppliers see large ramp-ups in workloads, before steep drop-offs
a few years later. This directly affects the cost of running the railways, as the price of infrastructure
improvements increases when suppliers have to expand and contract over the course of a few years.
“For rail suppliers, the slowdown in workload can mean freezing recruitment or making redundancies
and cutting back on innovation and training. For multinationals, it can mean moving investment to
other sectors or overseas, whilst SMEs often struggle to survive. What’s most frustrating is that these
companies then have to rapidly increase capabilities once the funding is turned back on a few years
later.
“It is clear that this situation cannot continue. So RIA is calling for everyone to come together –
Government, Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road, suppliers and other key rail organisations – to
plan how Control Periods can be smoothed to ensure greater consistency. This would ultimately
benefit not just the rail supply sector but also the Government, taxpayers, passengers and rail freight
services. Today, before the Transport Select Committee, we set out some possible ways of doing so –
we hope all the parties will now come together to look for a solution.”
Notes to Editors
- Information about the Transport Select Committee’s inquiry into rail infrastructure investmentcan be found here.
- More information about the three ‘Scenarios for Change’ for the Control Period funding structurecan be found in RIA’s written evidence to the Transport Select Committee here.
- About the Railway Industry Association: The Railway Industry Association (RIA) is the
representative body for UK-based suppliers to the UK and world-wide railways. It has some 200
companies in membership and the sector employs 240,000 people and contributes annually £11
billion Gross Value Added (GVA). 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.