Media centre

Wednesday 10 Dec 2014

Army of railway engineers to deliver a bigger, better railway in Wales with Christmas investment programme

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Hundreds of thousands of passengers and freight users are set to benefit from the biggest Christmas and New Year investment programme ever carried out on Britain’s rail network.

New station facilities, new platforms, new flyovers, new junctions and thousands of pieces of new, more reliable equipment will be installed and delivered in a £200m investment programme that will begin late on Christmas Eve once the last trains have run.

An army of over 11,000 engineers will be spending their Christmas Day, and the days that follow, working on the railway across Britain to deliver improvements for passengers, with new facilities and new equipment designed to reduce delays, improve train performance and build a bigger, better railway for the 4.5m people who travel on the network every day.

In Wales, Network Rail will continue to work towards transforming the railway through preparation for electrification, new signalling technology and vital improvements to provide a more reliable railway with fewer delays, as well as building in the potential to run more trains in the future.

Graeme Tandy, Network Rail Wales route delivery director, said: “Making the railway better is what we aim to do everyday and our investment programme this Christmas is fully focussed on delivering a better service for passengers.

“Passenger numbers have doubled since 1997 and we are delivering a record investment in the Welsh railway over the next five years to meet growing demand and improve and expand our congested railway network.

“With engineers out across Wales over Christmas, we will deliver a huge amount of work during a quieter time for train travel. New technology and working practices means we can keep lines open while our people work safely alongside, causing much less disruption than would otherwise be the case.

"We are acutely conscious that many people want to use the railway during the festive season to reunite with their families. The vast majority of the network will be running normally over the holiday period with only small sections impacted by our work.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused as these essential improvements are carried out over the Christmas period.”

Over Christmas, work will be carried out to modernise and transform the railway in Wales through preparation for electrification, new signalling technology and improvements to the rail network.

The major investment schemes this Christmas affecting Welsh passengers include:

• Two ageing bridges in South Wales will be demolished over Christmas, which will allow for the future electrification of the railway between London and South Wales. Cardiff Road bridge, which is a disused intersection bridge, and Trowbridge Road Footbridge, which was closed to vehicles in 2000 and can now only be accessed on foot, both require demolition as they have reached the end of their lives. Trowbridge Road bridge will be replaced with a new and improved structure, which will be raised slightly, to allow for future electrification.

• The railway will be closed between Hereford and Shrewsbury after the last trains on Christmas Eve until Monday 29 December. The closure will allow essential improvement work to be carried out on a railway bridge near Ludlow on the line which connects North and South Wales. The £7.7m project will remove a speed restriction for passenger and freight trains to allow for faster services in the future. To minimise disruption, Network Rail and Arriva Trains Wales are advising passengers that a bus replacement service will be in operation.

• Cardiff: Passengers will enjoy a more reliable and resilient service in the future as a new, state-of-the-art signalling system is brought into use in the Cardiff area. The work is part of the £220m Cardiff Area Signals Renewals scheme to provide a modern, bigger and better railway for South Wales. As part of this project, work will be carried out over Christmas when trains are not running. The work will be carried out on the railway between Cardiff Central and Canton and the railway between Adamsdown and Splott.

• Reading: One of the last pieces of the jigsaw to unblock the notorious train bottleneck around Reading station will be completed with the completion of a newly-built viaduct to the west of the station, leading to smoother, more reliable services between South Wales and London.

While these are the biggest schemes being carried out in Wales over this very busy period, there are a further 300 projects being undertaken across 2,000 worksites across Britain by Network Rail and its contractors between Christmas and New Year. The majority will have little or no planned impact on passengers, with a significant portion of this work to be completed before services resume on Saturday 27 December (no services run on Christmas Day with very limited services running on Boxing Day).

The exceptions include major improvement projects along the West Coast main line (Watford, Stafford, Norton Bridge), at London Bridge and in and around Reading. Passengers should check rail websites for travel information if their journeys involve passing through these locations, with the work at London Bridge and Reading continuing into the New Year.