Media centre

Friday 26 Feb 2016

Check before you travel this Easter as investment in Wales’ railway continues

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Passengers in Wales are being advised to check before they travel this Easter as Network Rail embarks on one of the biggest Easter investment programmes ever carried out on Britain’s rail network.

Over 15,000 members of Network Rail’s orange army will be working across Britain over the four-day Easter weekend to deliver a £60m slice of the company’s £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers and businesses.

New station facilities, longer platforms, extra tracks, new junctions and thousands of pieces of new, more reliable equipment will be installed.

In Wales, the work will focus on the latest phase of the project to modernise the Cardiff and Valleys network. The work includes upgrading track and signalling on the railway in and around Cardiff Central station, which will help to improve the reliability of the rail services in the area.

The improvement work will begin at 9pm on Easter Saturday to allow spectators and competitors in the World Half Marathon event in Cardiff to travel home and will continue into Tuesday, 29 March.

A reduced train service will run on the Cardiff and Valleys route, including the Vale of Glamorgan line, while this work is completed and passengers are advised to check before they travel by visiting www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/Easter2016 and allow extra time for their journey.

Paul McMahon, route managing director for Network Rail Wales, said: “Our work to modernise the railway in and around Cardiff will deliver big benefits for passengers and businesses. This Easter we’re replacing ageing signalling equipment with more reliable modern technology, upgrading the track, and modifying sections of platforms 6 & 7 in Cardiff Central station.

“With more and more people travelling by rail in Wales our work to modernise the railway is absolutely vital to provide better, more reliable journeys for our passengers and supporting economic growth.

“We’d like to thank the travelling public in advance for their patience and understanding as we deliver this vital work to improve their journeys.’’

An Arriva Trains Wales spokesperson said: “Over Easter there will be lots of timetable amendments on the local Cardiff and Valleys routes and different arrangements for each day so we are asking our customers to check before they travel daily.

“There will be no trains running between Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Central station during this work including on the Tuesday which is a normal working day, therefore our commuting services will be much busier than usual and customers are advised to consider alternative travel options where possible.”

Over 450 separate improvement projects will be carried out by Network Rail and its team of contractors across Britain over the period, the majority of which will have no impact on passengers. Where there are changes to services as a result of upgrade work, a comprehensive advertising campaign is under way to make sure passengers are able to make informed decisions about their travel over the Easter weekend.

The work is timed to take advantage of a relatively quieter time of the year when, on average, fewer than half the usual 4.5m people use the railway each day – enabling Network Rail and train operators to minimise disruption as much as possible.

 

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• The Railway Upgrade Plan is Network Rail’s £40bn spending plan for Britain’s railways for the five year period up to 31 March 2019. The plan is designed to provide more capacity, relieve crowding and respond to tremendous growth the railways have seen – a doubling of passengers in the past twenty years. The plan will deliver a bigger, better railway with more trains, longer trains, faster trains with more infrastructure, more reliable infrastructure and better facilities for passengers, especially at stations
• Although most of the network will be unaffected by planned improvement work, passengers are advised to check their journeys if travelling over Easter at www.nationalrail.co.uk
• Crossrail and Western electrification work between Paddington and Reading will see reduced train services (two of four lines closed)