KING’S CROSS STATION TO CLOSE FOR MAJOR RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS

Tuesday 23 May 2006

KING’S CROSS STATION TO CLOSE FOR MAJOR RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS

Region & Route:: Eastern: Anglia; | Eastern

King’s Cross Station will close on Sunday 28 May to allow extensive engineering work to continue on the East Coast Main Line, delivering long-term benefits to passengers. Following work carried out over the Easter and May Day Bank Holiday weekends, this final closure will see the completion of an extensive track renewals programme between King’s Cross and Finsbury Park. Some 400 yards of track and more than 2,000 tonnes of ballast will be replaced helping to improve the reliability and performance of the line between King’s Cross and Hitchin. Network Rail’s Route Director Dyan Crowther said: “Large scale engineering work is essential to the future of the railway. The completion of these extensive track renewals will vastly improve the running of the line and help us and the train operating companies deliver a more reliable service to passengers. We do these works over Bank Holiday weekend periods when fewer people are travelling, helping us to minimise disruption to passengers.” Network Rail has worked closely with the train operating companies to provide alternative travel arrangements for passengers. While King’s Cross is closed on Sunday 28 May GNER, First Capital Connect and Hull Trains services will start and terminate at Finsbury Park. GNER staff will be available at Finsbury Park to assist passengers and London Underground services from Finsbury Park will operate as normal, providing connections into and out of central London. Rail tickets will be valid on London Underground Piccadilly and Victoria line services between Finsbury Park and King's Cross. King’s Cross station will reopen on the morning of Monday 29 May. Early GNER and First Capital Connect services will continue to depart from Finsbury Park until services from King’s Cross resume at 7.45am. Passengers are advised to check their travel arrangements with National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950 or individual operators before making their journey.

Notes to editors

1. Further service information can be found on the following websites: • GNER – www.gner.co.uk • Hull Trains - www.hulltrains.co.uk • First Capital Connect - www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk • London Underground - www.tfl.gov.uk /tube

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

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.

Media centre