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Tuesday 8 May 2018

A bigger and better railway for Southend, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex passengers following May Day upgrades

Region & Route:

Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

Rail passengers from Southend, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex can look forward to a bigger and better railway following upgrades carried out over the bank holiday weekend.

Network Rail’s Team Orange installed 4km of overhead wire between Billericay and Wickford as part of an ongoing £46m transformation over the three-day period.

This is a continuation of the work to replace the old overhead wiring system with a new system which adapts automatically to heat during the summer, meaning fewer delays and cancellations. This new wiring system will also allow Greater Anglia to run their fleet of new trains with Wi-Fi, plug sockets and extra seats, from 2019 and to run more services to meet growing passenger demand, in the future.

Work also took place to install overhead wire at Ilford on the main line between Norwich and London as part of a £250m programme to upgrade the overhead wiring system to improve reliability and support the growing number of passengers using that line. The wiring system currently in place is one of the oldest in the country.

Meliha Duymaz, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “This weekend, we concentrated our work on the Southend Victoria branch line which has some of the oldest overhead wire equipment in the country. This work is an essential part of our Railway Upgrade Plan to increase reliability and allow more trains to run in the future to meet growing passenger demand. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while this important work took place.”

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “Together with Network Rail we’re transforming the railway in East Anglia. With their upgrade plan and our brand new trains, we’re modernising the railway for future generations. I appreciate these works are inconvenient for customers, but we make sure they can complete their journeys, even if part of it is by bus.”

Over the second bank holiday (Saturday 26 – Monday 28 May), work will take place on the Great Eastern Mainline at Ilford where engineers will replace a further 3km of overhead wire. This will increase reliability as part of a £249m investment to upgrade the overhead wiring system, meaning fewer delays for passengers all the way up to Norwich. Rail replacement services will run throughout and passengers are advised to check before they travel.