Thursday 5 Dec 2013
1500 Network Rail service update - Yorkshire and North East
- Region & Route:
Network Rail thanks passengers for their continued patience as engineers work to remove dozens of items of debris and fallen trees from the railway. Today's high winds have resulted in many longer journeys and cancellations. The line between Doncaster and Leeds has re-opened following clearance works and safety checks. There is still significant disruption to services, particularly in the Doncaster area as the storm moves south. The Whitby line is also closed.
Phil Verster, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, said: "We took the decision yesterday to reduce services as the forecast indicated wind speeds which would cause debris to be blown onto the railway. By running trains at reduced speed we give drivers time to react safely to obstacles on the line. The high winds have caused numerous trees and other debris to fall onto our railway, including a barn roof which blew onto the line this morning. We have had teams out on the network all day. We are doing everything we can to clear routes and restore rail services as quickly as it is safe to do so.
“We continue to work with the train operators and other industry partners to do everything we can to reduce disruption, while also operating a safe network for passengers. I thank passengers for their understanding. Individual up to date service information is available on national rail enquiries and from your train operator."
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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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