More reliable journeys for passengers following Cornwall railway upgrade: West Cornwall rail upgrade work

Friday 11 Dec 2020

More reliable journeys for passengers following Cornwall railway upgrade

Region & Route:
Wales & Western

Network Rail has today (11 December) completed its work to upgrade the railway in west Cornwall which means passengers will have more reliable journeys.

A team of engineers with the help of six Network Rail engineering trains removed old track and ballast, which is the stones that supports the track, between Penzance and Truro and on the St Ives Bay line, and replaced it with new ballast, railway track and sleepers.

During this time over 1km of new track, sleepers and ballast were installed, around 1.4km of rail and sleepers were repaired and 15 signalling and communications cabinets were replaced.

The work was completed at 5am this morning and train services have resumed as scheduled.

Lee Hildreth, Network Rail’s Project Manager, said: “We are delighted to have completed these important railway upgrades and thank passengers for their patience whilst we have carried out the work.

“The improvements will help provide passengers with more reliable journeys and is another example of our investment in the railway in Cornwall following recent signalling upgrades in the south west.”

Contact information

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

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Rob Breckon
Senior Communications Manager - Southern
Network Rail
07395 390759
rob.breckon@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.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk