Media centre

Friday 5 Sep 2003

ENGINEERING WORK IN EAST ANGLIA REGION OPTIMISING OUR OPPORTUNITIES

Region & Route:

| Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

| Southern

Increasing safety and performance, while controlling cost, is of paramount importance to Network Rail.  As a result, delivery planners in Network Rail’s East Anglia Region are working hard to maximise engineers’ time at critical locations by scheduling as many individual activities as practicably possible into a series of 27-hour jobs.  The work, which was successfully completed and handed back on time, took place on the route between Liverpool Street Station and Bethnal Green.  Over three weekends, different platforms and tracks were closed to ensure essential work was able to go ahead, but passengers were disrupted as little as possible. ·        Liverpool Street platforms 1 to 10 - Sunday 10 August ·        Liverpool Street platforms 11 to 18 - Sunday 24 August ·        Liverpool Street platforms 5 to 12 - Sunday 31 August The lines out of Liverpool Street Station are essential to the region as four train operating companies use the station, which is the busiest in the capital.  339,000 people travel through the station each weekday.  If there is a problem with the infrastructure it can shatter a morning or evening peak.  There are 18 platforms, which after 550 yards and a complex series of points and crossovers, reduce to six tracks. - more - Engineering – 2 These six tracks enter the 627-yard long Bishopsgate Tunnel then split at Bethnal Green to form the West Anglia route to Hackney Downs and the Great Eastern route to Stratford. The Regional Delivery Planning Team and Network Rail engineers decided what work needed to take place and handed over the draft plan to the Area Delivery Planning Team.  The small team was charged with maximising each 27-hour job by examining how every single work item can fit together and operate around each other in a confined but critical location. The outcome was an extensive and impressive multi-disciplined work plan which included: signalling, telecoms, track work and renewal, overhead line work, welding, scrap removal, rail grinding, point work, point heater maintenance and litter clearance.  During the jobs, over three different Sundays, 70 activities took place with more than 210 people cumulatively working on site.  With the right people on site at the right time even unexpected work could be completed.  For instance the track is ultrasonically tested at the start of the 27-hour job and if a rail flaw is found the right people are there to rectify it. If the same amount work was carried out during Rules of the Route (ROTR – short possessions agreed with train operating companies in between trains and over night) it would have taken approximately 10 weeks to complete, with many of the high time activities simply not able to take place. The ongoing work programme is already resulting in improved performance and reliability at Liverpool Street.  The train operating companies are seeing a better service and Network Rail’s golden assets are functioning well. Mark Phillips, Regional Director, Network Rail said:  “We have a team of professional planners working behind the scenes to ensure the jobs are carefully planned to fully utilise the time available on site.  It is an efficient way to deliver a safe and well performing railway to our freight customers, train operators and their passengers.”