The expansion of UK railways to connect cities is vital and essential to ensure that the economy can thrive, whilst ensuring social goals can be achieved. A new report, published by Urban Transport Group, claims that if cities and their surrounding regions continue to drive improvements within social, environmental and economic aspects within their communities then rail expansion is a must.

The Report, titles ‘Rail Cities UK – Our vision for their future’ highlights how urban rail has been one of the huge success stories of recent times – with commuter levels at an all time high. It’ll be a key topic of our economic growth conferences this year where HS2, the CaMKOx Corridor and Northern Powerhouse Rail come of the huge topics of discussion at the heart of the industry at the moment. The conferences include:

West Yorkshire Economic Growth Conference

Greater Manchester Economic Growth Conference 

West of England Economic Growth Conference

HS2 Economic Growth Conference

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Economic Growth Conference

The report suggest the rail expansion across cities would achieve economic growth, housing demands, reduce road traffic, improve air quality and much more. The report has created a five point vision for 21st Century rail cities based on:

  1. Higher density and more reliable rail services, with a greater market share of city centre commuting and more cross city routes
  2. The use of new technologies which are able to switch from rail lines onto streets when they reach city centres
  3. Rail networks which are integrated with wider public transport and support housing needs and local economic development
  4. Stations which act as hubs for business, housing and community purposes
  5. Interconnected rail networks which emulate those of comparative city regions in countries such as Germany.

Ben Still, Managing Director at West Yorkshire Combined Authority who’ll be represented at the West Yorkshire Economic Growth Conference, said: “Rail is absolutely vital for creating city regions which are economically dynamic, sustainable, meet housing needs and are ultimately rewarding places for people to live, work and spend time in. Only by expanding rail networks will we be able to get more people into the denser, less congested urban centres whilst unlocking more opportunities for housing development. All our areas have plans for transforming and expanding their urban rail networks but this will require consistent long-term funding and for the rail industry to up its game in delivering the projects on time and on budget. Although we are seeing significant investment in renewing and improving urban rail it falls short of what is needed for a long-term vision for rail cities. At the same time the proven benefits that devolution brings are not being extended rapidly enough. We need a step change in our urban rail ambitions if we are to create cities that are truly fit for the future.”

The report says that this future vision for rail can only be achieved if five key challenges are addressed:

  1. An appraisal methodology and decision making process that better recognises the benefits of urban rail investment
  2. Improving the rail industry’s capability and capacity to deliver schemes efficiently and at reasonable cost
  3. Returning to a national rail planning process based on long term rail expansion
  4. Greater coordination of the planning and delivery of transport, local economic development and housing
  5. Deepening and widening the process of devolution of rail powers to bring about greater integration of urban rail networks with other local public transport services.

We’re looking forward to hearing more about the connectivity of rail and other infrastructure between our cities and how it can drive economic growth in our cities. Check out our events page for more details.