Friday 16 Apr 2010
ENGINEERING WORK CANCELLED TO ALLOW EXTRA TRAINS IN RESPONSE TO AIR CHAOS
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail has cancelled weekend engineering work on long distance routes, to enable opertors to offer better and more services for stranded passengers.
In response to the disruption caused to airline passengers by the volcanic ash cloud, Network Rail is helping operators to run more services to deal with the extra demand and keep people moving.
Robin Gisby, Network Rail's director of operations and customer services, said:
"Network Rail is doing everything it can to help passengers whose journeys have been disrupted by the volcanic ash cloud. We have reviewed all engineering work we have planned for the next few days and where it will allow train operators to run existing or extra services, this work has been cancelled. This mainly applies to long-distance operators on the east and west coast mainlines and on routes to the Channel ports. I would like to take this opportunity to assure the public that the volcanic ash cloud is having no material impact on the safe and punctual running of passenger and freight trains."
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - National
020 3356 8700
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
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.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk