‘Biggest change since Brunel’


The government claims a £5bn revamp of the Great Western will bring double that sum in wider economic benefits. Paul Clifton reports


T


he Great Western is to be transformed with a decade of investment. There was nothing specifically new announced in the gathering of the great and good beneath the recently refurbished and elegantly light fourth span of Paddington station’s roof. Instead, it was a drawing together of all the threads that collectively


will make a 10-year re-vamp of this tired, creaking intercity route. With new InterCity trains from Hitachi, electrification, in-cab signalling, improvements to Paddington for Crossrail, a new station


at Newport, double-tracking of 20 miles of the Cotswold route and the huge Reading modernisation, Network Rail claims it is the biggest change to the railway since Brunel built it 175 years ago. The precise calculation of £5bn is unfathomable, given that some


of the biggest contracts have yet to be concluded. But it is estimated that the wider economic benefit to communities along the route will be at least double that figure. It is thought 50 per cent more people will eventually use the Great Western, which already has some of the most overcrowded services in the country. The greatest problem is east of


Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge, Plymouth


PAGE 22 AUGUST 2011


Network Rail


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