Rail plays an important role for passenger and freight transport in the region and policies are included within the Draft East Midlands Regional Plan

We liaise closely with the Department for Transport’s Rail Group and with Network Rail on rail issues such as franchises, Route Utilisation Strategies (RUS) relating to the Midland Main Line and East Coast Main Line, and the Regional Planning Assessment (RPA) for the East Midlands as a whole. RUSs involve the examination of the capacity and capability of current routes and how timetables can be restructured to make the best use of  existing resources, whilst the RPA takes longer-term look at the needs of the Region over the next 20 years.

Information on the refranchising of the Midland Main Line and cross country routes in the East Midlands can be found at http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/em/ .