Long-term planning

We’re responsible for understanding and shaping what the future of Britain’s railway looks like through delivery of long-term plans.

This work is done by dedicated ‘Strategic Planning teams’. Their job is to understand how the railway meets the UK Government’s objectives for the rail industry. The 5 objectives are:

meeting customers’ needs,
financial sustainability,
long-term economic growth,
reducing regional and national inequality and
environmental sustainability

There are similar objectives for the devolved nations and Network Rail works closely with Transport for Wales and Transport Scotland to meet their strategic objectives. The team also considers:

what the railway is capable of and how it delivers a service to passengers and freight users
what the likely changes to demand, passenger needs and patterns of train service will be in the future
what kind of changes to the railway as a whole we should make in future

Planning for the future railway

Most of Network Rail’s Strategic Planning activity is carried out by devolved regional teams across the nations and regions. In addition, the System Operator function carries out some national strategic studies as well as providing support to the regions with timetable studies, economic analysis and studies of pedestrian movement and crowding at stations.

These investment decisions could be potential changes required to service specification, the timetable, rolling stock and/or infrastructure. Any recommendations are developed in an incremental way, starting with small scale improvements before defining more costly ones. The focus is on the long-term railway – ensuring rail provides socio-economic benefits for passengers, freight-users and the general public.

The long term planning of the use and development of the rail network is an accountability that Network Rail currently holds on behalf of the rail industry.

It is defined in terms of licence obligations overseen by the Office of Rail and Road.

Supporting investment decisions

Funders use this advice to understand the complexities of the railway and to make informed investment decisions.

These investment decisions could be potential changes required to service specification, the timetable, rolling stock and/or infrastructure. The recommendations focus on the long-term railway – ensuring rail provides socio-economic benefits for passengers, freight-users and the general public.

LTPP documents

You will find our long-term planning documents in the list below.

Network licence and conditions

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Regional planning documents

Our planning documents are organised by Network Rail region. Use the links below to find information for the area you’re interested in.

Eastern Region’s Strategic Planning team is responsible for producing a variety of Strategic Advice documents in accordance with Whole Industry Planning principles. The WIP considers a wider suite of topics including power supply, depots, stabling, rolling stock capability, passenger experience, de-carbonisation, signalling capability etc.

In addition to these core activities, the team has also been supporting DfT with some of their post government policy strategic planning advice.

North West and Central

North West & Central Strategic Planning supports the industry’s planning and delivery of investment and change. The team supports the three constituent routes: North-West Route, including the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and areas to the Scottish Border and cross-Pennine links; Central Route covering the West Midlands and the lines to London Marylebone and pan-midlands links and interfaces with Wales & Western Region; West Coast Route covering the West Coast Main Line all the way from London Euston to Scotland via Crewe, Preston and Carlisle.

Scotland’s Railway

Scotland’s Railway’s Strategic Planning team provides evidence-based strategies and strategic advice that is reflective of Scottish Government and local government policies, and ties with the needs of cross-border and industry stakeholders. This involves planning for the whole railway industry, while working in collaboration with local authorities, regional transport partnerships and other key stakeholders to understand current and future travel markets, and the role that the railway should play within these to deliver an affordable and efficient railway.

We do this by evidencing the need for change, representing the interests of all passengers and freight customers, and ensuring alignment with the strategic direction set by Transport Scotland and other key partners.
Our focus is on creating an accessible, joined-up, well-run rail network that integrates seamlessly with other transport modes that passengers want to use, and that businesses want to move their goods on while fostering industry innovation and leadership

Current Activity

Developing a longer term ‘Vision’ for Perth and Inverness stations to meet the needs of current and future passengers and freight customers. This includes working closely with the local authority and regional transport partnerships.

Evidencing how people want to move across Scotland and working to understand the needs and wants of different customer groups to improve the rail product for our passengers. This includes working with local authorities to understand future growth areas, ensuring that the rail network is geared up to take additional passengers and that it is easy to access our stations.

Accessibility is a key component of everything that we do. We want to make it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to access our stations in Scotland. We are looking beyond the railway station boundaries to improve wheeling and walking access, as well as within our stations looking at how we improve platform to platform access and getting around the station. Our Sustainable Travel to Stations Strategy and Railway for Everyone Strategy set out our vision to make stations in Scotland more easily accessible.

Southern

The Southern Strategic Planning Team works with stakeholders and experts to understand, articulate and promote improvements to railway capability in the short, medium and long term to meet the needs of the railway and its customers across Wessex, Kent and Sussex.

We aim to provide a clear strategic vision for the network over a 30-year planning horizon, for both passenger and freight services. Identifying priorities and aspirations from key stakeholders, including the Sub-national Transport Bodies (Transport for the South East and Western Gateway), Local Authorities and passengers.

The Southern Region contains some of the busiest rail routes in the UK, transporting thousands of passengers into London and regional centres every day. Priorities for the region include giving passengers a reliable journey, connecting communities, recovering industry finances after the pandemic, and supporting economic growth. The team plays a key role in developing decarbonisation strategies, rolling stock change, and understanding the effects of climate change on our infrastructure.

Wales

We work with local and regional stakeholders including Welsh Government and Transport for Wales to set the future strategy for passenger and freight services.

It’s our job to understand:

how the railway contributes to national and regional economic growth and improvements in social well-being
what the railway is capable of and how it delivers a service to passengers and freight users
what the likely changes to demand, passenger needs and patterns of train service will be in the future
what kind of changes to the railway as a whole we should make in future

We provide strategic advice to funders and stakeholders to support making informed investment decisions, focusing on the long-term socio-economic benefits for passengers, freight users and the public across Wales & Borders.

Western

We’re a small team reporting to the Western Route Strategy Director, responsible for advising and making recommendations on the outputs the railway in the West should deliver to support our passengers, freight users and communities over the coming decades.

We work with partners and funders to set out what the railway in the Thames Valley, Oxfordshire, the West of England and the South West needs to offer in future to support sustainable growth and deliver a reliable, affordable, efficient, quality, accessible and safe service;
We develop and establish strategies to meet those needs;
We turn strategic recommendations into deliverable, fundable options to improve our railway;
And collaborate with partners to align investment strategies

We have three distinct but overlapping areas of responsibility:

Strategic network planning – using evidence to develop choices and set out recommendations in support of local and national government objectives for rail
Business case development – applying expertise to develop and submit robust, quality cases for investment in recommended outcomes
Integrated decision-making – working collaboratively across and beyond the industry to achieve consensus on key major challenges and choices facing the wider railway

Current Activity

Our railway is resurgent and we are working hard with partners to support changing patterns of demand for both passengers and freight users, particularly across the South West.

We’re actively working with partners on opportunities we’ve identified to improve the offer for passengers around Plymouth, on key Cornish branch lines and around Exeter.

We’re supporting local partners to set out the next phase of improvements to services around Bristol and the wider West of England (and South Wales)

We continue to play a crucial role in ensuring the region and the country gets the best value from major investments in East West Rail, delivering brand new connections between Oxfordshire Milton Keynes and Cambridge, and High Speed 2, with the introduction of Old Oak Common station linking the Great Western Mainline, the Elizabeth line and HS2

We are working hard to ensure that we can seize the opportunity to decarbonise our passenger train fleets when the current diesel train fleet needs replacing. We’re also making sure we set out the wider case for decarbonisation that could be delivered efficiently alongside this