OREANDA-NEWS. Network Rail published its half-year financial results for the six months ending 30 September 2014.

These results are the first results of the company's new five-year funding period (CP5:2014 to 2019) set by the Office of Rail Regulation. The results represent a steady start to an important period in the history of the railway network.

They show record levels of investment - almost £3bn for the period - and train performance that is struggling to climb back to the record levels seen a few years ago as congestion (record numbers of trains and passengers), asset reliability and managing the knock-on delays of incidents, takes its toll.

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain's railway - the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We're investing £38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.