Tuesday 20 Dec 2011
RAIL IMPROVEMENTS DELIVER MORE EFFICIENT RAILWAY IN LEICESTER
- Region & Route:
Rail passengers in Leicester will be travelling on a more efficient and reliable railway after Network Rail replaces systems used to control trains on the route over the New Year.
The project will allow 90 miles of railway around Leicester to be controlled from two new desks in the East Midlands Control Centre at Derby.
To allow engineers to test the system and bring it online safely it is necessary to reduce train services over the New Year.
Martin Frobisher, route managing director for Network Rail, said: “This work is to move control of the railway around Leicester into our state of the art centre at Derby. It is the first phase of a multi-million pound project which will provide passengers with a more reliable and efficient railway around Leicester.
“Passengers who buy a rail ticket have the right to expect to travel by rail so we are very pleased that, working in partnership with East Midlands Trains, the overall effect on passengers of our improvement work is much lower than in previous years.”
From 19:30 on Saturday 31 December to Monday 2 January, East Midlands Trains will not run direct services will run to London.
Services during this period will operate between London and Bedford, and between East Midlands Parkway and Sheffield, calling at Derby and Chesterfield. A service will also run between East Midlands Parkway and Nottingham. Rail replacement buses will run between Bedford and East Midlands Parkway.
Passengers travelling between Sheffield and London are advised to use East Coast services from Doncaster to London Kings Cross.
David Horne, managing director for East Midlands Trains, said: "We are working closely with Network Rail to minimise the disruption our customers will face as a result of the engineering work being carried out over the New Year.
"This year, we have been able to reduce drastically the number of people who will have to get on to a replacement bus. Our focus throughout the festive period is to provide the best possible services to passengers, and accurate information concerning the changes we have made."
Notes to editors
This is the first phase of work around Leicester. A second phase, due to complete in 2016 will also involve resignalling the route and remodelling the track layout outside Leicester. The new layout will allow freight to travel on the route without conflicting with passenger services.
This first phase which completes in Spring 2013 is worth approximately £22.6m. Croft signal box will close once the new year work is complete.
A programme of resignalling is underway in the East Midlands. The series of 13 individual projects began in October 2005 and is progressively renewing the signalling on the Midland Mainline from London St Pancras International to Sheffield with modern equipment. Other works carried out at the same time include upgrading the fixed telecoms network, freight sections of track, remodelling junctions and changes to level crossing operations that will lead to improved train punctuality. All of the renewed signalling will be controlled from the purpose built East Midlands Control Centre in Derby.
Nationally Network Rail is planning to consolidate all signalling and control activity into 14 modern Rail Operating Centres over the next 15-30 years. Derby will be one of those 14 centres.
Across the network the number of buses replacing trains has halved compared with the last Christmas period.
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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.
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