Strategic Route 5 - West Anglia was the designation given by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, from 2004 to 2009, to a grouping of railway lines in the East of England that encompassed the

West Anglia Main Line The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...

and its various branch lines. The route provided key services to

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and

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as well as supporting suburban services in North London and rural services in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and Suffolk. In 2010, Network Rail restructured its route categorisation. Routes 5 and 7 were merged into Strategic Route D: East Anglia.

Strategic route sections

The Route was divided into a number of separate Strategic Route Sections (SRS's) that were defined based on route use, infrastructure and historical lines.

Railway planning

As part of Network Rail's Strategic Business Plan a Route Plan for each route, including Route 5, was published annually. The Route 5 plans for 2008 and 2009 are made available online. Together with Route 7 - Great Eastern and Route 6 - North London Line and Thameside, the route was included in the

Greater Anglia Route Utilisation Strategy The Greater Anglia Route Utilisation Strategy is a Route Utilisation Strategy published by Network Rail in December 2007. It was the sixth RUS to be produced. The area covered includes the whole of Route 5 West Anglia (WA) and Route 7 Great Ea ...

Proposed developments

The Greater Anglia RUS includes a number of proposals for the future development of the route. In the medium term, 2009–14, this includes minor infrastructure works and additional rolling stock to allow main line peak-service trains to be extended to 12-car formation. A number of developments are also intended for the West Coast Main Line depending on the status of future development at

. Enhancements to the power supply of the route are intended for completion by 2012 to interface with those carried out on Route 6 and Route 7.{{cite web , url=http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/StrategicBusinessPlan/Delivery%20Plan/2009/Enhancements.pdf , title=Enhancements programme: statement of scope, outputs and milestones , publisher=

, date=2009-03-31 , accessdate=2009-07-01 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902143019/http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/StrategicBusinessPlan/Delivery%20Plan/2009/Enhancements.pdf , archive-date=2 September 2009 , url-status=dead

References

Network Rail routes