The Government's announcement on 16/07/2012 of £9.4 billion investment in railway infrastructure includes plans for the electrification of key routes and increasing capacity on congested lines for a number of Core Cities. The announcement reflects the findings of a report on the transport infrastructure requirements for sustained economic growth in Core Cities. The report, commissioned by Core Cities and conducted by ARUP and Volterra, concluded that alongside the plans for High Speed Rail, investment in existing and local transport networks was critical for ensuring that that cities could achieve ‘best case’ economic forecasts, providing growth and jobs for the UK, and that this is not an ‘either / or’ investment scenario.
You can read the Government announcement here.
You can read the report into transport infrastructure requirements for Core Cities here.