Media centre

Monday 7 Apr 2003

ENGINEERING WORKS ON GREAT WESTERN MAINLINE IN AUGUST

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

Network Rail has confirmed that it will be carrying out major track renewal works in the Slough area over the August Bank Holiday weekend (22 – 25 August 2003) following wide consultation with industry partners.  The work will involve replacing several sections of track and points on the four-track railway at Dolphin Junction, near Slough. As a result, part of the route between Reading and Paddington will be closed from 23.00 Friday 22 August until 05.00 Tuesday 26 August 2003, though Paddington station will remain open with some local services operating, including Heathrow Express.  Reading station will be open for the duration of the work with a train service from Reading to London Waterloo available throughout.  Additional train services will be running into Waterloo from Reading during Sunday night and Monday morning and up to four trains an hour will be running throughout Bank Holiday Monday. This will help alleviate problems with overcrowding due to the large numbers of people returning to London from the Reading Festival.   Journey times between Reading and Waterloo will be approximately 75 minutes. -more- August Bank Holiday – 2 Services will also be available from Reading for passengers travelling to the west and Heathrow Express will remain unaffected. In addition to this work, some preparatory work will be taking place during the week prior to the Bank Holiday weekend.  This will mean a reduction in the train service between Reading and London during this period and an amended timetable will be produced nearer the time.  Network Rail’s Regional Director, John Curley, said:  “This crucial engineering work is part of our commitment to provide a safe and reliable railway.  It is important that we improve track quality in the Slough area and avoid the need for severe line speed restrictions over several miles. We would like to apologise in advance to everyone who will be affected by this work and will do our utmost to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum.”