INVESTIGATION CONTINUES AS NETWORK RAIL QUIZZES CONTRACTORS OVER NEW YEAR DELAYS

Monday 14 Jan 2008

INVESTIGATION CONTINUES AS NETWORK RAIL QUIZZES CONTRACTORS OVER NEW YEAR DELAYS

Region & Route:: National

Network Rail completed a series of meetings last week, with contractors responsible for delivering work on the West Coast upgrade project and work at Liverpool Street station. After the engineering overruns over the New Year period, Network Rail demanded answers from them to why that assurances given before Christmas about the work proved to be wrong. Iain Coucher, Network Rail’s chief executive said: "Far too many passengers were inconvenienced over the holiday period and we are taking that very seriously. We at Network Rail have taken responsibility and we reiterate our apology. Nonetheless, I wanted personally to hear explanations from the relevant contractors. What happened was totally unacceptable and we have to learn lessons, so it does not happen again." The findings from these meetings will be fed into Network Rail's ongoing investigation into the New Year passenger disruption. They will be presented and discussed at the Network Rail board meeting on Jan 16th and to Network Rail's members on Jan 18th. Separately, the Office of Rail Regulation is conducting its own investigation with which Network Rail is cooperating fully.

Notes to editors

The £415m work at Rugby / Nuneaton forms part of a bigger scheme that looks to significantly increase the frequency and reduce the journey time of services on the West Coast Main Line from December 2008. The work at Rugby over the Christmas break is a vital component to the overall scheme introducing new tracks, and enabling the next stages of work to commence as planned. The work at Rugby over Christmas included: o Installing over 5km of overhead line o Bringing into use 5.3km of new track o Bringing into use 15 new sets of points o Installing two new sets of points o Bringing into use 18 new signals o Making 16 new track connections o Demolishing a mini-signal box o Removing 11 sections of overhead wire and moving a further 14 o Removing four signalling gantries o Installing nine new signalling 'booster' cabinets Work at Liverpool Street involved the demolition of a bridge, known as GE19 The bridge is 120 years old and has been out of use for decades. This means that unlike many other great Victorian engineering structures it is no longer safe to use. It is also in the wrong position for the new East London Line tracks. Demolition of the current bridge means removing some 12,000 tonnes of brickwork. The new bridge is the length of three Wimbledon Centre Courts. It will be put into place in Spring 2008.

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