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Tuesday 31 May 2016

Crossrail project works successfully delivered by Network Rail over Spring bank holiday weekend

Region & Route:

| Southern

• More than 40,000 hours worked at 19 different locations in outer London, Berkshire and Essex to prepare tracks, infrastructure and stations for new railway that will be known as the Elizabeth line
• A selection of images of the Spring bank holiday Crossrail project works are available to download below

Network Rail successfully delivered another batch of important upgrades to the railway over the Spring bank holiday weekend (28-30 May) as part of its £2.3bn programme of works for the Crossrail project.

With three quarters of the new railway’s route – which will be known as the Elizabeth line from December 2018 – running above ground through outer London, Berkshire and Essex on three of the busiest commuter routes into the capital, Network Rail’s orange army were out in force over the weekend to carry out upgrades to the existing tracks, infrastructure and stations.

The work will enable passengers to travel from Reading and Heathrow in the west right through the capital to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east without changing trains.

Matthew Steele, Crossrail Programme Director at Network Rail, said: “Once opened, the Elizabeth line will greatly improve the capacity of the transport network in London and beyond with new trains offering more frequent and more reliable services from Berkshire, Essex and the south east of London. I would like to thank passengers and our lineside neighbours for their patience over the bank holiday whilst we carried out these major works.”

Matthew White, Surface Director at Crossrail said: “The Crossrail project will provide a step change in public transport for people in outer London, Berkshire and Essex. The work carried out by Network Rail on these sections of the route will help to deliver quicker, more reliable services and better stations for many thousands of passengers.” 

Network Rail’s Spring bank holiday work took place at 19 different locations both east and west of London: 

• Work continued on the Great Eastern Main Line section of the route, with station and infrastructure improvements between Shenfield and London Liverpool Street. These included platform improvements and extensions in preparation for the new Elizabeth line trains as well as further progress towards step-free access.
• At Shenfield, work to upgrade the electrification equipment that will power the new trains continued with nine new booms installed across the railway and a dozen foundations to allow the installation of more new structures in the near future. The complex project to upgrade the tracks and allow the new trains to run efficiently alongside existing passenger and freight services continued.
• Construction of the landmark new station at Abbey Wood also continued, including the demolition of an old platform to create space for the new Elizabeth line platforms to be built later in the year.
• West of London, between Paddington and Reading:
• Electrification work included the installation of more than 30 new masts, and the foundations for 14 future masts at Maidenhead as well as three wire runs to install the cables that will power the new trains.
• Station works at Hayes & Harlington, Southall, West Ealing and Slough included platform extensions and upgrades to accommodate the overhead electric lines needed for the Elizabeth line trains.
• Construction of the flyover at Stockley junction continued with 12 huge concrete sections lifted into place that form the basis of a new ramp. The flyover will allow more trains to run more reliably at the busy junction to Heathrow.