The Railway Industry Association has launched the next stage of its SURE campaign, calling on the government to ‘Speed up Rail Enhancements’ (SURE).

Last year, the first stage of the SURE campaign successfully called on the Department for Transport to ‘Show Us the Rail Enhancements’ projects in order to provide visibility to rail suppliers. 

Now, following the need for an economic recovery due to the coronavirus outbreak and the lack of urgency delivering these schemes, the campaign is calling on the treasury to play its part and to fast-track and fund the projects on the list.

The campaign was launched with an open letter to chancellor Rishi Sunak by RIA chief executive Darren Caplan, calling for the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline to be accelerated.

Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Railway Industry Association, said: “The government has said it is committed to building new infrastructure as part of its ‘New Deal’ for a post-Coronavirus economic recovery.

“The Railway Industry Association believes that rail projects have a vital role to play in that recovery, providing green investment across towns and communities throughout the UK and generating significant economic growth and jobs.

“Since we launched the ‘Show Us the Rail Enhancements’ campaign last summer, the DfT commendably published the RNEP list in October. However, with the economy crying out to be rebooted and a plethora of rail schemes ready to go, we are now launching stage two of the campaign to get these enhancements schemes sped up. 

“Fundamentally we are calling on the treasury to accelerate and fund delivery of these enhancements projects as soon as possible, ensuring they play a key part in the UK’s future economic strategy.

“As the chancellor prepares his speech on a green UK economic recovery, and seeks sectors ready to kick-start jobs and GVA, we urge him to be SURE and Speed up Rail Enhancements, to benefit UK plc, its communities and long-term connectivity.”

The government's Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline (RNEP) can be found here.