UK: The High Speed Rail Group has published its Driving Investment in Rail Infrastructure report, outlining what it says is needed to develop a comprehensive long-term rail infrastructure strategy that actively engages with the investment community and explores a broad range of funding options, including private investment.
The association says there is a strong appetite among industry and investors for large-scale infrastructure projects, but the government needs to create an investment-friendly ecosystem. This requires a comitment to a strong pipeline, ensuring close collaboration between all stakeholders, and providing transparent, structured policy frameworks that focus on long-term decision making.
The High Speed Rail Group calls on the government to:
- develop and stick to a comprehensive long-term strategy for both north-south and east-west travel, prioritising links from Birmingham to the northwest and from Liverpool to Hull;
- engage with the infrastructure investment community to explore all funding options. HSRG says ’it does not have to be an all-or-nothing approach, with some assets, such as rolling stock and stations, lending themselves more easily to private finance than others’;
- adopt a whole systems approach to rail infrastructure, looking at planning, funding and delivery from a whole-country perspective.
‘Short-term policy changes and inconsistent project implementation have undermined investor confidence, leading to a fragmented infrastructure landscape that is time-consuming and costly’, said High Speed Rail Group Chair Dyan Perry, a former CEO of High Speed 1 Ltd.
‘It is promising to hear that HS2 will likely reach Euston. However, we need definitive answers and a long-term rail strategy that extends north of Birmingham to Crewe and beyond. This strategy must also look beyond the short-term costs to HM Treasury, focusing on the lasting and cumulative benefits rail investment can deliver to the UK.’
The report includes contributions from HS1 Ltd, KMPG, Mott MacDonald, Costain, Turley, Amey, Hitachi Rail, Systra and Centrus.
Aarti Gupta, Rail BD & Investments Lead at Costain, said ‘the highly competitive nature of public financing, coupled with the complex and capital-intensive nature of rail projects, has made securing private sector participation a challenge. However, with public finances increasingly strained, the tide is turning towards revisiting public-private collaborations underpinned by refreshed models such as the Regulated Asset Base for investment. This offers significant potential to reshape how infrastructure projects, including high speed rail, are financed in the future.’
Richard Catterson, Head of Strategic Marketing at Hitachi Rail, said ’the challenges faced by the rail industry to attract private investment for major infrastructure projects stands in stark contrast to the success of the renewables sector in the UK, which has demonstrated the role that private investment continues to play in delivering the critical infrastructure projects that are decarbonising the power sector. This success was built on the creation of a stable, long-term and attractive investment environment.’
