HS1 Ltd, the owners of the UK’s first and only high speed railway, and Network Rail have signed a new deal, extending Network Rail’s contract to operate and maintain High Speed 1 until at least 2025.
Following a ‘very successful first five years of operation’, since the full opening of HS1 and St Pancras International in 2007, the two organisations have now extended the contract between them.
Network Rail said the agreement would mean an ‘immediate significant reduction in price’ for HS1 and its customers. It is also expected to ‘incentivise and facilitate the 50/50 sharing of future financial outperformance’.
Nicola Shaw, chief executive, HS1 Ltd, said:
“We conducted an extensive market review and knew that we had alternatives.
“However the quality of delivery from Network Rail (CTRL) has been good over the last few years and this deal offered real benefits to us and to our customers.
“We’ve now got a decade of certainty on which to work together to improve the line even further and to welcome more growth.”
