FASTER TRAINS IN KENT TUNNELS THANKS TO £35m OF CONCRETE SUPPORT

Monday 1 Nov 2004

FASTER TRAINS IN KENT TUNNELS THANKS TO £35m OF CONCRETE SUPPORT

Region & Route:: | Southern

Higham and Strood tunnels in Kent – which are almost 200 year old – have been restored by Network Rail, ensuring the engineering marvels stay in use for another 200 years. The 3.5km long tunnels were built in 1824 as canal tunnels connecting the River Medway and the River Thames. As canal travel declined, in 1840 the tunnels were converted for use by passenger trains. John Kingsnorth, Network Rail project manager said: “We have used state of the art machinery, products and techniques to fully reline this tunnel, ensuring it’s watertight and fit to hold passenger trains for many years to come. “This £35 million renewal project will also allow trains to travel 50 miles per hour faster through the tunnel than they do at the moment. This work highlights Network Rail’s commitment to rebuilding the railway and protecting our heritage.” The track renewal part of the project gets underway today, and the tunnel is due to reopen early in 2005.

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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.

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.

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