Tuesday 11 Oct 2016
Network Rail reaches vital stage in Midland Main Line upgrade
- Region & Route:
- | Eastern
Network Rail has completed the demolition of Syston Road bridge in Leicestershire as part of its Railway Upgrade Plan to electrify the Midland Main Line.
The bridge was demolished overnight on Saturday 8 October and the new, replacement bridge will be constructed in stages over weekend nights during October and November.
Syston road has been closed to traffic for the past month to prepare for the upgrade. It will continue to be closed until Friday 17 March and route diversions are in place. The new bridge will be built overnight to try and reduce any further disruption to local residents and rail users.
The upgrade of the Midland Main Line will provide more seats for passengers travelling between Sheffield and London St Pancras through the East Midlands, as well as a cleaner and quieter railway for those living nearby.
Gary Walsh, area director at Network Rail, said: “We are committed to improving services for rail users as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan, as well as minimising disruption to local residents living in Syston and the surrounding villages.”
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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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