PHOTOCALL: RAIL GOOD INVESTMENT IN THE WEST COUNTRY: Taunton Fairwater

Tuesday 6 Feb 2007

PHOTOCALL: RAIL GOOD INVESTMENT IN THE WEST COUNTRY

Region & Route:
| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders
| Southern: Wessex
| Wales & Western
| Southern

Date: Thursday 15 February 2007 Time: 11am Location: Fairwater Freight Yard, Silk Mills Lane, Taunton, TA2 6BJ (directions available on request) Event: Opportunity to view Network Rail’s new £1.7 million West of England High Output operations base, view the High Output systems worth over £50 million and speak to the High Output project team Contact: Kirsty Anderson, Media Relations Manager, 01793 515267/ 07717 737231

As part of Network Rail’s £750 million programme to improve the railway along the Western Route, a specially designed operations base has been built in Taunton to house the High Output Track Relaying System and High Output Ballast Cleaner. The High Output equipment, worth over £50 million, will bring a major improvement to the railway in the West Country over the next few years. This world class, award winning equipment works three times faster than conventional renewals systems. This not only reduces the need for lengthy closures of the railway for engineering work, but will also improve passenger comfort by making the track smoother and preventing the need for speed restrictions in coming years. The High Output Systems were used successfully in the recent three week closure of the railway between Taunton and Highbridge & Burnham. The High Output Track Renewals Systems do the work of several machines simultaneously: one system removes old rail and old sleepers, levels the ballast bed, lays new sleepers and installs new rail – all as one continuous process - the other system deals with the ballast. Five hundred metres of track, sleepers and ballast can be replaced each night. As part of the project, Network Rail is also working closely with the West Somerset Railway. Used ballast is being provided by Network Rail as construction material for the building of additional West Somerset Railway facilities near Taunton, avoiding the need for many lorry movements in the local area.

Notes to editors

Please bring along sturdy footwear. The High Output Systems were recognised at the National Rail Awards 2006 as winner of ‘Innovation of the Year’. The judges said: “Network Rail is at the forefront of innovation on the international stage.”

Contact information

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

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -Western route
07730 354394
MediaRelationsWestern@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.

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