Media centre

Friday 2 Jul 2004

FILTON ABBEY WOOD RE-OPENS

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Filton Abbey Wood Station re-opened  on time following a £16 million scheme, completed by Network Rail and jointly funded with the Strategic Rail Authority, to double the track and create a new platform, removing a major bottleneck on the rail network. The project was completed on time and to budget. Previously, trains had to either wait outside Filton Abbey Wood Station until a platform became available, or they were held at signals until the short single line section on the South Wales side of Filton Junction became free. The new platform and track layout at Filton now means an easier, smoother more punctual journey for all passengers who use services that need to go through this previously congested, key railway junction.. The successful delivery of the project required a blockade of the main line between Bristol Temple Meads andto South Wales and Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway from Monday June 14 until Monday June 28.  Services were diverted over a secondary route between Filton West junction and Narroways Hill junction, via (but not calling at) St Andrew’s Road, Avonmouth, Shirehampton, Sea Mills, Clifton Down, and Redland. Network Rail is proud of the project, which involved a workforce that grew to over 400 working on any one dayXyx man hours and involved someXyz men 144,000 man-hours, the equivalent of 16.5 years of work!  Twelve thousand tonnesXyz of ballast, 3,300 sleepers and bearers, 4.6km of rail and 70km of lineside cables were also used in the project. -more- Filton – 2 John Hayes, Project Manager at Network Rail, said: “We are extremely pleased that the works carried out at Filton Abbey Wood Station have run smoothly and were completed on time, so that disruption to our customers and passengers has been kept to a minimum.  The track was re-opened at 05:05 on Monday 28 June, with the first train running through at 05:15.”