Friday 7 Apr 2006

BRUNEL UNVEILING IN MAY

Region & Route:
| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders
| Wales & Western: Western
| Wales & Western
Network Rail is pleased to announce the date of the unveiling of Brunel’s name on the Royal Albert Bridge in Saltash, Cornwall.  The letters ‘IK BRUNEL ENGINEER 1859’, which have been hidden for decades, will be revealed on 16 May. John Armitt, Network Rail’s Chief Executive, said: “Network Rail has the special honour of safeguarding much of Brunel’s legacy and I am delighted that his name will be seen in all its glory on the world-renowned Royal Albert Bridge.  It is only fitting that we join in the celebrations to mark this outstanding engineer’s place in history.” Work has just started to relocate the access platforms to the opposite face of the end portals of the bridge.  These are crucial in providing access into the tubes that support the entire structure. Andrew Kelly, Director of Brunel 200, said:  “After many years Brunel's glorious bridge will once again be reunited with the name of its great engineer. Another brilliant event for Brunel 200 and one that will last for a long time. Congratulations to Network Rail for this initiative”. This weekend marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and celebrations will be taking place across Bristol and the South West throughout the year.

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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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