Passengers urged to check before they travel as work continues to upgrade Midland Main line: Passengers urged to check before they travel as work continues to upgrade Midland Main line

Wednesday 14 Nov 2018

Passengers urged to check before they travel as work continues to upgrade Midland Main line

Region & Route:
| Eastern

Network Rail is advising passengers to check before they travel on Sunday 18 November as work continues to upgrade the Midland Main Line.

Network Rail engineers have been carrying out work at Market Harborough station and this coming weekend work will take place on the track to the north of the station, at Great Bowden Road bridge, meaning trains will be diverted around Market Harborough.

Elsewhere on the line, Network Rail will also be undertaking follow up works at the site of Odell Viaduct, which was recently demolished, continuing work at Irthlingborough Road bridge, and at Wellingborough North Junction; and piling and steel work continues to be installed in readiness for electrification.

The nature of all this activity means that train services will be affected on Sunday 18 November when a bus replacement service for passengers travelling to Market Harborough will run between Kettering and Leicester. It will also impact journey times for passengers travelling on the route.

Rob McIntosh, Network Rail Route Managing Director said: “We liaise closely with the train operating companies to plan all our engineering work to keep disruption to a minimum and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused. The combination of the work being undertaken both to improve the line speed and to introduce electrification will greatly improve passenger journeys in the years to come and we thank passengers for their patience whilst we undertake these vital enhancements.”

Dan Lucas, General Manager South for East Midlands Trains said “There is a significant amount of work taking place between Kettering and Leicester this Sunday. As a result, a bus replacement service will run between Kettering and Leicester. We would urge everyone to check before they travel and leave plenty of time to make their journey.”

ENDS

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Joanne Parker
joanne.parker@networkrail.co.uk

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.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk