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Monday 13 Jan 2025

Great Eastern mainline weekend engineering work this winter to keep passengers moving

Region & Route:

Eastern: Anglia

This winter, weekend engineering work on the Great Eastern and Southend Victoria/Southminster lines are planned to take place which will help keep the railway operating safely for Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line passengers.

The mainline between Ipswich and London is a very busy railway corridor and requires frequent maintenance and renewal of the infrastructure to keep services running safely for everyone. This part of the railway is also a busy freight line carrying heavy goods and materials into and out of the capital from the freight terminal at Felixstowe.

All of this frequent use wears out the track and equipment much quicker than less busy parts of the railway and maintenance engineers need frequent access to keep all the railway equipment in working order.   

Planned weekend engineering work on the mainline between Witham and London includes:

• Replacing worn out rail at Ilford and Harold Wood
• Carrying out repairs and improvements to the drainage at Manor Park and Seven Kings
• Carrying out track work to replace a switch and crossing at the country end of Chelmsford station as well as platform work and repairs. 
• General maintenance including overhead line work, vegetation clearance, surveys and investigations of bridges culverts and other structures. 

This engineering work, affecting Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line services, will take place on the following weekends:

• Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 January 2025 between Witham and London on the mainline and includes the Southend Victoria/Southminster lines
• Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 February 2025 between Witham and London
• Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 February 2025 between Shenfield and London
• Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 February between Shenfield and London

Buses will replace trains between Witham and Newbury Park tube station on the first two weekends, while trains will continue to operate between Norwich / Colchester Town / Clacton & Witham.

Buses replace trains replace trains between Ingatestone and Newbury Park on the second two weekends while trains will continue to operate between Norwich / Ipswich / Clacton and Shenfield (via Ingatestone connecting into rail replacement buses).

Buses will replace trains between Southend Victoria and Newbury Park tube station & between Southminster and Wickford on the weekend of 25/26 January.  

Elizabeth line services between Stratford and Shenfield will be affected. Replacement buses will operate between Stratford and Romford, and between Newbury Park and Shenfield via Chadwell Heath. Passengers are advised to use Central line connections between Liverpool Street, Stratford and Newbury Park.

Passengers are being advised to check their journey plans with National Rail Enquiries, TfL.gov.uk or with Greater Anglia before travelling on these weekends. 

Lawrence Bowman, Network Rail's route director for Anglia said: "Our maintenance teams are planning to carry out important repairs to the mainline to keep trains running safely.

"This includes improvements to track drainage so that our railway is resilient to the risk of more frequent and intense rain storms which historically have caused localised flooding that can impact our ability to run reliable train services.

"I'd like to thank all our passengers and customers for their patience while we carry out this weekend work on the mainline."

Martin Beable, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “This work is very important to help maintain the safe and reliable running of the railway and make it fit for the future.

“A rail replacement service will run while the works take place, and passengers are advised to check before they travel and allow more time for their journey.

“We would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding while this work is carried out.”