The spending split will be £31bn for England and Wales and £4bn in Scotland.

The regulator has now approved £24.3bn to be spent in Great Britain on maintaining (£7.7bn) and renewing (£16.6bn) the existing railway, with renewal work seeing a 17% increase from the £14.2bn in CP5.

Renewal spend has been lifted after the ORR challenged Network Rail to make more progress towards long-term asset sustainability.

For both passengers and freight operators, this will help cut delays caused by infrastructure failures, such as track defects.

The ORR has also confirmed Network Rail’s plans for a significant funding and resource boost for its timetabling and planning functions, with forecast spend almost doubling from around £145m in CP5 to over £270m in CP6.

This part of Network Rail can now employ around 100 new staff from the current total of around 700.

The five-year plans will see Network Rail become much more locally focused, with each of its eight geographic routes having its own budget, delivery plans and scorecards.

In addition, ORR has strengthened local routes’ ability to buy goods and services they need locally rather than centrally, where it offers better value for money.

This is part of a shift in approach to give more responsibility to Network Rail’s routes, which are best placed to deliver for local passengers and freight users.