Wednesday 30 Mar 2005
NEW TRACKS FOR A NEW SEASON AT SHOEBURYNESS
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Southern
A massive project to install 1000 yards of new railway track in and around Shoeburyness station was successfully completed over the Easter bank holiday weekend.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, as the clocks moved forward to mark the start of British summertime, around 30 workers were out on the track, delivering a new improved railway for passengers using c2c train services to and from London Fenchurch Street.
Jon Wiseman, Network Rail Route Director, said: “Network Rail is committed to rebuilding the railway and we took full advantage of the Easter holiday when fewer people were using the trains. The work now completed at Shoeburyness secures the future of this line, and will mean a more reliable train service for passengers.”
An investment of £750,000 funded the complete renewal of 1000 yards of railway track through all three platforms at Shoeburyness station, along with 1,500 sleepers and 3,750 tonnes of ballast. Around 250 Network Rail and Balfour Beatty workers were involved in the project, which was carried out in 98 hours over the Easter weekend.
Jon Wiseman added: “I must pay tribute to the many dedicated workers who forfeited their Easter break to deliver this intensive programme of work. I would also like to thank passengers for their patience while this essential job was carried out, bringing long term benefits to railway users in Essex.”
The engineering work at Shoeburyness was completed on schedule at 4am, Tuesday 29 March.
Leila Frances, c2c Route Director, said: “Network Rail and c2c work closely together to ensure a robust infrastructure that is helping to deliver record levels of punctuality on the route. For the second quarter running, c2c has come top of the league for South East performance and it is precisely Network Rail's commitment to the provision of first class track through major engineering work that makes it possible for passengers to continue to enjoy such high levels of reliability and punctuality."
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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