Media centre

Wednesday 1 Sep 2021

Over £1.8 billion spent across the south east on improvements with passengers returning to the railway more than 18 months after the first lockdown, Network Rail and Southeastern says “welcome back”

Region & Route:

Southern

| Southern: Kent

• Network Rail Kent route, which maintains and operates tracks from London Charing Cross, London Cannon Street and London Bridge to commuter towns of south east London, Ashford, Canterbury and Dover, spent over £660m maintaining and upgrading the railway during lockdown, so passengers came back to a better railway.
• Enhancements worth over £100m include upgrades to Hither Green and Sandwich stations with more underway
• Passengers welcomed back with enhanced cleaning and advised to wear masks in crowded stations.

Network Rail’s Kent route has invested over £660m in the railway to support the country in its mission to ‘build back better’ so passengers can feel confident and safe when they return to travelling by train.

Even at the height of the pandemic, Network Rail and Southeastern were working together to keep trains moving for critical workers, such as NHS staff, as well as making sure thousands of tonnes of vital goods, like food, fuel and medical supplies, were transported by freight trains every day.

This included improvements to signalling and track in Hither Green, Slade Green and Grove Park for more reliable journeys in and out of London, removing speed restrictions to improve train performance. It also included major upgrades to Denmark Hill, Hither Green, Lewisham, Maidstone East and Sandwich stations.

Meanwhile work to complete a new station at Thanet Parkway is well underway and major ‘Access for All’ schemes at Canterbury East and St Mary Cray are nearly complete.

John Halsall, Network Rail Southern region managing director, said: “We’re really excited to welcome more passengers back to the railway now that the coronavirus restrictions have been lifted.

“I want to pay tribute to the thousands of Network Rail and train operator colleagues who have worked tirelessly over the past 18 months to keep the country moving during this incredibly challenging time.

“Our passengers deserve to travel with confidence, so we’ve been working hard to keep you safe with enhanced cleaning and new one-way systems to avoid crowding, and we’re asking passengers to continue to wear face coverings in crowded spaces out of respect to others.”

David Statham, Managing Director for Southeastern, said: “Working together with Network Rail we’ve continued to invest in the railway across Kent, East Sussex and South East London in the areas that really matter, not least in enhancing accessibility and ensuring that journeys are more reliable.

“The last eighteen months have not been without challenges but we continue to listen and to respond to continue to do more to improve the journey experience of our passengers.”

Case study

The railway’s own key workers, including signallers and maintenance teams, worked day in day out in the national effort to keep the rail network open and support the country through this challenging time.

One of those was Will Shepherd, Network Rail Kent delivery manager who has reflected on the past 18 months. He said: “Throughout the pandemic, we knew people on our trains were critical workers such as doctors and nurses and people who work in supermarkets, so it was really important to provide a safe and reliable service.

“It was a real focus to respond to any causes of delays so that we could resume the service as quickly as possible.”

“Network rail workers shared the same fear of going into work as everyone else, but it was so important we played our part to maintain the railway and to provide a service to passengers, so we continued to maintain and improve the railway throughout the pandemic.”