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Network Rail’s work to improve safety at Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, was marked in an official ceremony today (Monday 18 April) as work began to construct the bridge that will replace the level crossing.

Work to improve the reliability of journeys to and from London this May Bank Holiday will be less disruptive, while still delivering significant benefits for passengers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex on this important route to and from the capital.

Network Rail is advising passengers to check before they travel as its engineers have begun emergency repair work to a railway embankment between Farnham in Surrey and Alton in Hampshire.

Passengers are being asked to Check Before You Travel over the May Day bank holiday as Network Rail continues to deliver its £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan.

Network Rail’s face of the May Day Bank Holiday, Paul Clark, from Kent, is used to spending his weekends and bank holidays working to improve the railway in the south east of England.

Rail chiefs today said a big thank you to passengers from London, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, who have had to take weekend travel alternatives into London Liverpool Street since early February, after Network Rail completed a 10-weekend package of works as part of its Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers. 

As part of its £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan, Network Rail has completed a £29million upgrade to the track and foundation of the railway between Basingstoke and Eastleigh in half the usual time by using state-of-the-art track renewal and ballast cleaning machines.

• 25km of track replaced
• 64,000 tonnes of ballast replaced
• 38,000 new railway sleepers laid

A new and improved bridge over the railway on Station Road, Shrivenham, was opened today (Friday 8 April) after Network Rail’s work to construct the bridge as part its Great Western Electrification Programme was completed on time.