Network Rail has said the supply chain will be “virtually unaffected” as it seeks to reassure the industry following the decision last week to put the planned electrification of the Midland Main Line and TransPennine routes on hold.
Last week, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced that the projects would be “paused” after the ORR had shown Network Rail was struggling to hit deadlines for its CP5 programme.
Although the TransPennine electrification is still in the design phase, preliminary works are well underway on the Midland Main Line.
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Although two electrification projects have been paused, our supply chain as a whole will remain virtually unaffected and there will be minimal impact on the market.
“We are still investing the full £38 billion allocated to us for Control Period 5, which includes £25 billion worth of renewals and enhancements.
“The projects that are now on hold were not fully mobilised and any resource commitments from suppliers involved will be moved to other projects. We do not foresee any future resource issues.”
Why Network Rail missing deadlines while many SME design and installation companies have resources sitting idle? Big boys are sitting on big pile of projects while failing to deliver but refuse to offload work to SME companies. What a disaster!, 2018-19 will be same panic as we experienced at the end of CP4.