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A new approach to railway engineering this Christmas has helped reduce delays for passengers and saved taxpayer-funded Network Rail hundreds of thousands of pounds by allowing trains to run at high speed after Network Rail’s recent £150m Christmas engineering programme.

UK Government Rail Minister Claire Perry and Scottish Government Transport Minister Derek Mackay joined Network Rail managing director for Scotland Phil Verster at Lamington today to see the ongoing operation to repair a vital viaduct on the West Coast Mainline.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers and businesses will now be feeling the benefits of the successful completion of Network Rail's £150m Christmas Railway Upgrade Plan resulting in better, more reliable train services and improved passenger facilities.

Margaret Hickish, Network Rail’s access and inclusion manager, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to disabled people.

The West Coast main line near Stafford has reopened on time after Network Rail’s orange army completed four days of upgrade work to track and bridges over Christmas. 

Passengers in parts of northern England and Wales are advised to check before travelling as flooding continues to affect rail services.

Major flooding and landslips are disrupting services in some parts of Cumbria, the Tyne Valley, West Yorkshire and the Conwy Valley in Wales.

Network Rail and the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) have launched a Christmas campaign reminding people to take extra care in stations to reduce festive falls and “Lend a Helping Hand” to each other, as new figures reveal that the average number of “slips, trips and fall” incidents is 20% higher in the month of December than any other month.

Salford City FC co-owner and former Manchester United and England superstar Paul Scholes has helped launch a new railway safety initiative which aims to cut the number of young people who are killed or injured after trespassing on the railway.