For more than a century, and thanks to the rise of the internal combustion engine, Britain’s railways have been in an almost constant state of decline. The leak of sensitive information on Network Rail’s plans for the upkeep of the infrastructure over the next few years confirms that the forced neglect of the system continues to be one of its defining features.
While inflation rages and wage costs soar, Network Rail can only hold its spending on maintenance at a constant cash level; it means real terms investment spending on the existing system, leaving aside HS2 and other major prestige projects, will fall over the course of the decade. Such “disinvestment” will leave the railway in an even weaker position than it is today.
Network Rail, the state-owned enterprise that looks after the rails, cables, signals, points, and many stations, appears convinced it can still run a safe railway; but it also seems clear that it will be one that is even less reliable than at present, and with every likelihood that fares and subsidies (paid for from general taxation) will need to rise even to get to this unhappy state of equilibrium. Though the travelling public may find it difficult to believe, the medium-term prospect is of more delays, more services curtailed and more timetables gutted. Meanwhile, HS2 to the North and Midlands keeps getting trimmed to the point of unviability, and other much-needed Northern improvements to centres such as Bradford have been abandoned. The post-pandemic habit of hybrid working, turbocharged by substandard commuter services, is resulting in a permanent loss of revenues in the South East (ruinously so on the London Underground). Whatever else, this does not feel much like “levelling up” and “building back better”. In truth, it feels as if southern and London services are in decline – levelling down to what Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle have long suffered.
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