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Around 240 places on the 2013 Network Rail advanced apprenticeship scheme are up for grabs, and as National Apprenticeship Week begins, chief executive David Higgins wants parents, educators and young people alike to realise the future career opportunities that an apprenticeship can bring, including a university education at work.

Rail passengers in Leeds might need to do a double-take on Sunday 17 March as Network Rail teams and emergency services run a live emergency exercise.

Punctuality on the railways reached 91.0% during Period 12, according to monthly performance data released today by Network Rail.

Network Rail has awarded a major contract, with a value of approximately £130m, to Balfour Beatty Rail for the construction of a two-mile section of the Crossrail route from Plumstead to Abbey Wood in southeast London.

Network Rail has vowed to keep disruption to passengers to a minimum as it carries out vital improvement work on the Tarka line between Exeter and Barnstaple during March.

Engineers are beginning the slow process of removing spoil from Hatfield colliery which has severely damaged the railway in Stainforth.

Now that the spoil heap has stopped moving the teams have conducted more detailed surveys of the damage and are planning the work which needs to be completed to restore rail services through the area.