Media centre

Monday 3 Dec 2018

Network Rail workers miss Christmas with families to carry out major project to railway in York

Region & Route:

| Eastern

Over 35 Network Rail workers will be giving up spending the festive period with their families to carry out vital improvements to the railway in York.

The improvements, part of the Railway Upgrade Plan, begin after the last service on Christmas Eve and will be completed before the first service on Thursday 27 December.

The project in York will see control of the signalling system move from the Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) to the state of the art Rail Operating Centre (ROC).

The IECC currently controls signalling on the East Coast Main Line from Doncaster to Northallerton via York; the Transpennine route from York to Morley and Pudsey via Leeds and the north Bradford lines to Skipton/Ilkley. The transfer of the signalling to the ROC will help to further develop a centre of excellence with greater resilience when disruption occurs, as well as a railway with reduced running costs.

Kirsty Edmond, Scheme Project Manager for Network Rail, will be working on the project over the Christmas period.

She said: “I’ve been working on the railway for seven years but this is the first time I will be working over the festive period and I’m really looking forward to it.

“My role is to oversee the work which is going on and make sure everything is on track. I’ve been working on this project since January so it will be great to see it completed this Christmas.

“The work we are carrying out over Christmas will benefit passengers by making the railway more modern, reliable and with greater resilience and I look forward to passengers reaping the benefits.”

A breakdown of how journeys will be affected can be found by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas and following #XmasRailWorks on Twitter.