Saturday 28 Dec 2013
Peterborough passengers experience new, improved railway
- Region & Route:
Rail passengers travelling through Peterborough will have a more reliable journey from today after Network Rail engineers completed three days of intensive work at Christmas.
From today (Saturday 28 December) passengers will experience the benefits of a £43m upgrade as the new signalling system goes live. The system, which monitors and controls the movement of trains through the busy station area, will mean a more reliable service.
Work on the new track layout, longer platforms, station bridges, extensions and new lifts was also completed between 24 and 27 December. This marks completion of the final key stage of the project which will ultimately create a bigger, brighter, better station to cater for the growing number of people who want to travel by rail.
Phil Verster, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “I thank all passengers for their patience as we completed this vital work. The new signalling system will help to make journeys more reliable. We have also opened the new platform and extended old ones. This will separate trains on the east/west routes from those travelling between the north and south and allow longer trains to stop at the station in the future
“In order to complete the work we were unable to run trains through Peterborough on 27 December. This was the only time in more than five years when we have closed the main line with no diversion route available. I thank passengers and our train and freight operating customers for their patience and support.”
Passengers are reminded that platform numbers have changed at Peterborough station. New signage is in place.
Over the coming weeks engineers will complete the new waiting rooms on platform 3. Refreshment vouchers which can be redeemed on the station will be given to passengers until the waiting rooms are fully operational.
The project will fully complete by March 2014.
Notes to editors
The Peterborough project:
- Relieves a key bottleneck on the East Coast Main Line
- Segregates East Anglia services from East Coast Main Line services and freight services from passenger services, improving flexibility and reliability
- Improves the station for passengers through the footbridge, lifts and waiting areas
- Reduces passenger congestion on the station by introducing new platforms
- Improves reliability and the ability to get services back to normal following disruption
- Allows longer trains to be accommodated on the platforms, allowing for the introduction of Thameslink and Intercity Express Programme trains
- Improves capacity for essential freight services
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