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Tuesday 3 May 2016

May Day rail investment programme delivers better, more reliable railway for passengers

Region & Route:

National

Britain’s commuters returned to work today on a better, more reliable railway thanks to the efforts of Network Rail’s orange army, who worked round-the-clock to improve the network over the bank holiday weekend.

Over 11,000 engineers worked through the long weekend, delivering another slice of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan, which will provide a bigger, better, and more reliable railway for passengers and businesses across Britain.

A total of £33m was spent on the railway over the May Day weekend, with the work planned over the long weekend when passenger numbers are typically fewer than half, minimising disruption to passengers as far as possible. 

Compared with the recent Easter programme, there was significantly less disruption on major routes with the overwhelming majority of journeys unaffected.

Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said: "I would like to thank passengers for their understanding while we worked to improve the railway over the long weekend, part of the £40bn we are spending to keep passengers and freight moving. I am proud of the efforts of our engineers who worked tirelessly to deliver another slice of our Railway Upgrade Plan aimed at providing better, more reliable journeys for passengers and businesses across Britain.”

ENDS