North East man to appear in new Channel 5 documentary series: Ben Cockburn, a construction manager for Network Rail

Monday 27 Mar 2017

North East man to appear in new Channel 5 documentary series

Region & Route:
| Eastern

Ben Cockburn, a construction manager for Network Rail, appears in a new documentary series which goes behind the scenes of the rail industry.

The show follows railway workers on the East Coast Main Line as they run the railway, carry out major engineering work and help passengers at various stations.

In tonight’s episode, Ben, who lives in Durham and has worked for Network Rail for 14 years, is seen working on a major improvement project to install new waybeams on King Edward bridge in Newcastle.

Ben is filmed as he and his team carry out vital upgrades to the Grade II listed structure, which took place over the Christmas period, a time when Network Rail carries out a number of major improvement projects.

He said: “The great thing about my job is that I get to be involved in lots of different projects. I’m proud of the work that my team and I carry out; it’s really rewarding when you have finished a job and you know that it has made the railway more reliable for passengers.

“The work which is shown in Monday’s episode took place over Christmas, a time when most people are at home with their families but it is one of the busiest times for engineering work on the railway.

“It’s fantastic that the documentary gives viewers a look at all the work which we do behind the scenes to keep the railway running.”

The final episode of Inside King’s Cross: The Railway airs tonight on Channel 5 at 21:00

If you miss it, you can catch-up online.

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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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