Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2019 to Question 226656 on Railways: Passengers, what corresponding increases in capacity in the form of (a) new rolling stock and (b) infrastructure enhancements have been provided by the rail industry in each of the last 30 years.

According to the Rail Delivery Group, there were 10,400 vehicles in passenger use in 1996/97 compared to 14,025 as at March 2018, an increase of over 3,500 vehicles.

This additional fleet capacity is helping to lengthen trains and contribute towards the thousands of extra rail services each week. In addition, the rail industry reports a major increase in the efficient utilisation of the rolling stock fleet since 1995, in particular through much improved use of spare capacity at off-peak times. Further,, changes to trains types and their internal layouts has led to the average capacity of trains increasing substantially. For example through the replacement of slam-door carriages, introduction of trains with metro-style interiors and changes to seating configurations.

Various infrastructure enhancements have also been made across the country, with around £15billion being spent in CP5 between 2014 and 2019 on rail infrastructure upgrades. This includes various capacity enhancement projects such as additional platforms, for example at Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester airport stations; platform lengthening, for example at London Waterloo and some other stations across the South East; and rail line capacity upgrades, such as four-tracking between Huyton and Roby on the Liverpool to Manchester route, track and signalling improvements on the Calder Valley route between Manchester and Bradford via Halifax, re-signalling between Plymouth and Penzance, and four-tracking on the Filton Bank in Bristol.