CHRISTMAS ON THE TRACKS

Friday 9 Dec 2005

CHRISTMAS ON THE TRACKS

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Wales & Borders; | Wales & Western: Western; | Wales & Western

There won’t be any turkey or tinsel for many Network Rail employees in South Wales this Christmas as they forfeit their Christmas dinners to undertake £1.4 million of railway improvements in Cardiff. Three teams of around 50 people each will be working throughout Christmas and the New Year to install the new 124 tonne layout of Cardiff West Junction. Andrew Wozencraft, Network Rail’s Infrastructure Maintenance Manager for the area, said: “The junction at Cardiff West, originally installed in the late 1950’s, is nearing the end of its maintainable life. The works will provide smoother and more reliable journeys for passengers travelling in this area. They will also allow our maintenance programme to be more effective at one of the area’s most important junctions.” The new junction is over 170 metres long and divided into 30 smaller panels for ease of installation. As it weighs over 124 tonnes it will have to be transported to site by road-railers and trolleys. Rail services will continue to run throughout the holiday period with some restrictions to trains. All services will be using either platforms 4, 6 & 7 at Cardiff Central. There will also be reduced services for those travelling on the mainline between Newport and Swansea and to the Valley lines. Passengers are advised to contact their local train operating company if they are planning to travel on this route during this period, call National Rail Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50 or visit www.nationalrail.co.uk.

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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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