http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/13/rail-network-investment-cameron-clegg
July 13, 2012
By Juliette Jowit, Dan Milmo and Nicholas Watt
David Cameron and Nick Clegg will join forces next week to declare that the government is to embark on the biggest investment in the rail network since the Victorian era as ministers move to demonstrate their commitment to boosting economic growth.
In an attempt to show a renewed sense of purpose, after last week’s bruising rows over Lords reform, the prime minister and his deputy will announce the electrification of a series of lines and the symbolic reversal of some closures imposed in the 1960s by the Beeching axe.
Richard Beeching, the late chairman of the British Railways Board, became a hate figure for rail enthusiasts when he compiled a report that led to the closure of 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles of railway lines. Fifty years later, Clegg and Cameron will confirm plans to reopen part of the Varsity line, from Oxford to Bletchley.
The plans, which are likely to involve £10bn of capital investment between 2014 and 2019, are likely to involve:….