Media centre

Tuesday 29 Dec 2009

NETWORK RAIL ENGINEERS HARD AT WORK OVER CHRISTMAS TO UPGRADE BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS

Region & Route:

National

The Christmas weekend was a busy time for Network Rail engineers, as thousands worked around the clock to upgrade and maintain Britain's railways.

Hundreds of projects are underway across the country over the Christmas week, delivering longer platforms, wider bridges, better stations, new tracks and signals, all designed to improve journeys for passengers. More than two thirds of the planned work this Christmas has now been successfully completed with Network Rail engineers continuing to work to complete the remaining work by Monday 4 January.

This Christmas, Network Rail is doing more work than ever to upgrade the country’s railways while keeping disruption to a minimum. Engineers will spend a total of 730,000 hours on the tracks over the festive period, with 8,000 more trains running this year than last, meaning 6,000 fewer bus replacement services.

Simon Kirby, Network Rail’s director of infrastructure investment, said: “This Christmas thousands of Network Rail engineers are working flat out to upgrade the railway across the UK, replacing bridges and track, upgrading stations and signalling, making the vital improvements that will deliver better journeys for passengers.

"Many months of meticulous planning have gone into making sure these works run as smoothly as possible and two thirds of the work has already been completed without a hitch. We are not resting on our laurels however, and we will keep working hard over the coming days so that the rest of the railway is back in operation by Monday.”

Network Rail’s works are part of a continuing programme of improvements on the railway. Major upgrade work is carried out at Christmas when demand for rail is lower than usual so that passenger disruption is kept to a minimum. All lines affected by Christmas works will return to full service by 4 January.