Legal & General will invest further £350m to finance rolling stock purchase in the UK. Credit: Legal & General Group plc.

Financial services firm Legal & General is set to invest an additional £350m to upgrade rolling stock across the UK.

The company has previously invested a sum of £550m in the country’s rail infrastructure and completed four rolling stock deals.

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Legal & General is set to help the Abellio East Anglia franchise to lease a fleet of 665 Bombardier Aventra trains from 2019 via an investment of £183m under the new financing programme.

"By helping to finance significant improvements to Britain’s rail network, we can use UK pension money to help to increase capacity, relieve congestion and provide better passenger facilities."

The investment will be made by LGIM Real Assets on behalf of various clients, including Legal & General Retirement (LGR).

It forms part of a total £835m commitment made by a team of lenders to finance an Aventra locomotive fleet for use by train leasing company Angel Trains Group.

Angel Trains will then lease the vehicles to Abellio, which currently serves as operator for the route.

The new vehicles are expected to increase frequency of services along the network and reduce overall journey times.

Additionally, L&G has provided financing for the supply of more than 400 vehicles to the West Midlands franchise.

LGIM Real Assets, on behalf of clients such as LGR, has provided £170m of long term debt to support the entry of Corelink Rail Infrastructure, a rolling stock leasing company jointly owned by Deutsche Asset Management and Infracapital.

Corelink Rail Infrastructure is expected to lease the new trainsets to West Midlands Trains.

LGR Direct Investments head Hayley Rees said: “By helping to finance significant improvements to Britain’s rail network, we can use UK pension money to help to increase capacity, relieve congestion and provide better passenger facilities, while matching our long-term income liabilities.

“Good transport infrastructure can enhance labour mobility and increase economic growth.”

Legal & General has invested an estimated total of £12bn in UK infrastructure, direct investments and urban regeneration projects to date.