£40 MILLION RAIL INVESTMENT AND OVER 150 JOBS TO BE CREATED IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Wednesday 25 Apr 2007

£40 MILLION RAIL INVESTMENT AND OVER 150 JOBS TO BE CREATED IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Region & Route:

A £40 million investment and over 150 jobs are being earmarked for South Yorkshire as part of Network Rail's plans to create a new National Engineering Centre at Woodhouse junction near Beighton, Sheffield. The centre will be the new national hub for maintaining Network Rail's vital fleet of engineering trains and on-track plant and machinery. The plans are being unveiled for the first time at a public exhibition in Beighton on Saturday (28 April and 5 May). The new facility will:

Create 160 jobs
Regenerate an area of disused railway land
Create apprenticeships giving opportunities for aspiring local engineers
Incorporate some of the latest 'green' building technologies such as:
- generation of some of its own electricity
- water recycling
Be a cutting edge maintenance centre for the company's national fleet of engineering trains and equipment
Be surrounded by extensive landscaping of trees and shrubs

Peter Henderson, Projects and Engineering Director, said: "Our plans are great news for the local area as they represent a big investment for the region and the creation of much needed jobs. "The railway is thriving and this national hub will help to keep it running safely and effectively for years to come." The site was chosen for a number of key reasons:

Its central geographical location
Its excellent links to the national rail network
The opportunity to regenerate a large amount of disused railway land
Availability of a local skilled workforce backed up by the railway foundation degree being based at Sheffield Hallam University and South Yorkshire's proud history of engineering expertise

Mr Henderson concluded: "Technical innovation is at the heart of our plans to develop and improve the railways. This centre will allow us to develop new and better ways of maintaining our fleet by ensuring we have the right people with the right skills and attitude centred in a single purpose-built site. It is a crucial part of our investment in the future of the rail network."

Notes to editors

The public exhibition or 'open days' are being held on 28 April and 5 May at Beighton Sports & Leisure Club, High Street, Beighton, 10am to 3pm. Representatives from Network Rail will be on hand and there will be further information available Once the open days have been concluded, Network Rail's planning team will take on-board the comments and suggestions of local people before putting forward a planning application towards the end of May. If planning permission is granted work to complete the new facility would take around 18 months and work could start by the end of the year. The media are welcome to attend the exhibitions, please contact Rachel Lowe in advance for any filming or interview requests.

Contact information

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03457 11 41 41

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01904 383180
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

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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