Media centre

Friday 18 Sep 2015

Network Rail’s ‘orange army’ wins top award at railway Oscars

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

Network Rail’s ‘orange army’ was celebrating last night after their work to redevelop and significantly improve the Reading station area was awarded ‘project of the year’ at the National Rail Awards.

The ceremony, which was held at The Grosvenor Hotel in London, recognises the highest levels of excellence in the rail industry, with the ultimate accolade being the ‘project of the year’ award.

Robbie Burns, Network Rail’s regional director of infrastructure projects, said: “We were delighted to receive this award on behalf of everyone who worked on the programme and the passengers and neighbours who stuck with us throughout the seven years it took to complete the entire project.

“The many years of planning and hard work by the project team paid off and ensured the redevelopment of the Reading station area was completed a year ahead of schedule and under budget.”

The redevelopment of the station and its surrounding area removed one of the biggest bottlenecks on the Western route, enabling passengers to benefit from faster, smoother journeys into and through Reading station.

The £895m project involved building a bigger station with more facilities and better accessibility for passengers, and the construction of a new viaduct and new freight lines to completely separate passenger and freight services for the first time. This removed the delays passengers previously experienced while waiting for slower freight trains to pass through the station area.

Robbie continued: “Our work at Reading has completely removed the bottleneck on this vital section of the Great Western Main Line, enabling passengers to benefit from faster journeys and fewer delays.

“With demand for journeys into London from the West set to double within 30 years, our separation of passenger and freight lines at Reading and the creation of new lines as a result of the viaduct will play a significant role in helping us to meet this challenge.”

ENDS