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Notes to editors

1)      Network Rail is a key partner in delivering the Olympic Transport Plan. Improvements to the North London Line, a key part of London Overground which serves Stratford, will mean more frequent, longer trains, less crowding and a more reliable service on the route from spring 2011.

2)      Network Rail’s work on the £326m scheme (joint funded by ODA, TfL and Network Rail) is on schedule to be completed in 2011 so that London Overground can make its crucial contribution to the Olympic transport network in 2012.

3)      Ahead of the Games additional rail capacity is also being built at West Ham, a key interchange for thousands of spectators, and £109m is being invested by ODA in Stratford station.

4)      A new, improved service will run on the Thameslink route from December 2011. As part of this Network Rail will complete a new landmark station spanning the Thames at Blackfriars in early 2012.

5)      Network Rail is suspending signalling and overhead line work from four weeks prior to the Games, with track renewals and civil engineering suspended from two weeks before. There will be no signalling commissioning for six weeks before and no access for Crossrail work four weeks before. Those parts of the network not directly serving Olympic and Paralympic venues will operate under normal maintenance, enhancement and renewal programmes.

6)      Details of the lines on which work is suspended are below:

No disruptive engineering work on the following routes (in both directions):

·         London Bridge to New Cross Gate, Norwood Junction and Brighton

·         London Charing Cross to Dartford, Bromley, Tonbridge, Ashford and Dover

·         London Euston to Coventry (football venue), Birmingham, Manchester (football venue), Liverpool and Glasgow (football venue)

·         London Fenchurch Street to Southend and Shoeburyness (serves West Ham and the venue for the mountain biking at Hadleigh Farm in Essex)

·         London King’s Cross to Cambridge, Peterborough, Doncaster, Leeds, Newcastle (football venue) and Edinburgh

·         London Liverpool Street to almost all destinations including Stratford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich, Stansted and Cambridge

·         London Paddington to Reading, Swindon, Oxford, Bristol, Exeter and Cardiff (football venue)

·         London St Pancras to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield

·         London St Pancras International to Stratford Int. Ebbsfleet and Ashford

·         London Victoria to East Croydon, Gatwick and Brighton

·         London Waterloo  to Clapham, Richmond, Twickenham, Windsor and Eton (rowing, canoeing and kayaking venue) and Ascot

·         London Waterloo to Wimbledon, Woking, Basingstoke, Southampton, Bournemouth  and Weymouth (sailing venue )

·         Richmond to Stratford and Gospel Oak to Barking (London Overground)

·         Stansted Airport to Birmingham, cross-country route via Peterborough, Leicester and Nuneaton