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A Rayleigh woman who has worked in the rail industry for over 50 years has been awarded an MBE for services to Transport in the East of England.

In the biggest single engineering operation ever mounted by Network Rail for the Crossrail project, major works were completed to the existing railway in outer London, Berkshire and Essex with over 4,000 workers delivering improvements over Christmas

Major progress was made over Christmas at the site of the new Cambridge North station, which is now 80% complete, to get it ready for its opening in May this year as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan.

A long-standing speed restriction in place on the railway between Shenfield, Essex and Seven Kings, London during the summer can now be lifted, following completion of important railway improvement works over Christmas, benefiting all passengers travelling between Norwich and London.

Network Rail has completed another £4.5 million slice of the £800 million Waterloo & South West Upgrade on time over Christmas, which will boost capacity at Waterloo by 30% by December 2018.

While most people were tucking into their turkey Christmas dinner, Network Rail’s orange army spent this Christmas renewing a railway bridge in Bramley, Hampshire, as part of its multimillion pound Christmas upgrade programme.

Network Rail and South West Trains have teamed up with St John Ambulance to ask passengers to stay safe near the railway, at an awareness day held at London Waterloo on Thursday, 22 December.

Network Rail and The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre visited Joyce Frankland Academy in Newport, Essex on Tuesday, 13 December, to perform their hard-hitting ‘Off the Level’ production and teach students about railway safety.