Friday 25 Apr 2008

NETWORK RAIL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME – HOW IS YOUR TRAVEL AFFECTED THIS BANK HOLIDAY? (Anglia)

Region & Route:
Eastern: Anglia
| Eastern

As part of its multi-billion pound programme of improvements for the railway, Network Rail has today announced detail of the work that will affect passengers this bank holiday weekend.

Work across the Anglia region includes a £400,000 project to electrify tracks at Norwich Royal Docks to enable additional services to run, track remodelling at Manningtree and supporting Transport for London as it carries out a huge ‘bridge slide’ to move into place a new 800 tonne bridge near Liverpool Street.

Over the long weekend some £75m of investment will be made countrywide, all aimed at delivering a more reliable, better performing railway, and a better service for passengers. Around 5,000 people will be working day and night to deliver 250,000 man hours of improvements to the railway network.

Iain Coucher, Chief Executive said: “The work over the May bank holiday is all about improving the railway for passengers and freight users. Over the long weekend we’ll be investing millions of pounds to make services more reliable, more punctual and in some cases faster and more frequent.

“I know that those travelling on the Anglia route experienced major delays to their journeys when we had a power problem at Easter, and for that I again apologise. However our planning and preparation is robust and we are determined to deliver a bigger and better railway to our passengers and freight users at the promised time.

“Whilst many services will continue to run with some alterations, our message to passengers is to check before you travel. We'll be working closely with the train operating companies and National Rail Enquiries to provide the very latest information both online, via help-lines and at stations."

For more details on Network Rail's major May bank holiday works visit www.networkrail.co.uk

Notes to editors

Network Rail is working closely with train operators, Passenger Focus and other partners in the rail industry to get up to date information to passengers before they travel. Travel information for the Bank Holiday weekend has been available from National Rail Enquiries for several weeks. For advice on journeys and ticket information, passengers should contact National Rail Enquiries at: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk or on 08457 48 49 50.

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.

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