Tuesday 30 Aug 2016
Bank holiday upgrade work completed as railway reopens on time
- Region & Route:
- | North West & Central
The rail network reopened on time this morning after £30m of rail improvements were completed over the bank holiday weekend.
Over 15,000 members of Network Rail’s orange army worked round the clock to improve the network for millions of passengers, working on nearly 1,000 individual projects across Britain.
As part of its Railway Upgrade Plan, Network Rail worked on a number of sites along the West Coast main line between Hertfordshire and Lancashire to help provide passengers with a better, more reliable railway.
Larger pieces of work are planned to take place over bank holidays as they are generally quieter periods with fewer passengers travelling by rail.
In Lancashire work to electrify the railway through Chorley took a step forward with a subway roof being replaced and upgrade work completed to platforms and track. This will enable overhead power lines to be installed in the area which will help provide a better service for passengers from December 2017.
Between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey work was completed to improve drainage along the line and on the A453 Tamworth Road, between Four Oaks and Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, bridge improvement work was completed.
Elsewhere ballast – the stone that forms the foundation of the track – was replaced in the Bletchley area and track was replaced between Hanslope and Blisworth in Northamptonshire both of which have improved the reliability of the railway through the area.
Martin Frobisher, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “This weekend saw vital upgrade and maintenance work taking place to provide passengers with a better, more reliable railway.
“Work takes place 365 days a year as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan to maintain and improve the railway but we carry out larger upgrades over bank holidays when there are fewer passengers travelling.
“There’s never a good time to impact on journeys and I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while this essential work was completed.”
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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.
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