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Tuesday 15 Dec 2009

KEEPING EAST COAST RAIL LINKS OPEN AFTER THE NEW YEAR

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Passengers will be able to travel by rail between Scotland, north east England and London this New Year – at the same time as crucial improvement works are carried out on the tracks.

Sometimes the line would be closed to all traffic while such work was completed but Network Rail has brought in special arrangements to allow train services to run.

Richard Lungmuss, route director for Network Rail, said: “We know that passengers don’t like transferring onto coaches and it is a testament to the hard work of all those involved that we are able to keep trains running.

“Network Rail has made a commitment to reduce the disruption caused by our essential planned rail improvement works and this is a great example of us putting the passenger first without compromising safety.”

Train services run by East Coast, CrossCountry and Grand Central will all continue to operate past the location of the engineering work.

A combined service of four trains an hour in each direction will run past the works, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire, on Sunday 3 and Sunday 10 January.  Sunday 3 January is expected to be particularly busy as people return home from Hogmanay celebrations.

Some local journeys such as First TransPennine Express trains serving Thirsk and the line to and from Middlesbrough via Yarm will still involve a short coach connection at York or Darlington, but the thousands of long distance passengers will have only a small delay to their journey by train as they pass through the area.

Passengers are advised to check with their operator or National Rail Enquiries 08457 48 49 50 or www.nationalrail.co.uk before they travel