Friday 19 Jan 2007
RAIL NETWORK GETS BACK TO NORMAL FOLLOWING STORM
- Region & Route:
- National
The rail network is getting back to normal today following yesterday's storm. The network suffered more than 1,000 individual incidents yesterday; hundreds of trees fell onto the railway blocking tracks and bringing down over head lines, and a factory roof, gardens sheds and even a marquee were blown onto the railway. Robin Gisby, Director of Operations & Customer Service, said: "The weather was wild yesterday, and we know that passengers experienced very difficult travelling conditions. "We pulled in everyone we could yesterday and overnight to clear blocked lines, remove fallen trees and make emergency repairs to overhead power lines. "Our people have done a tremendous job; all routes are open this morning, and the vast majority of services are running." There are some knock on delays from yesterday and Virgin West Coast and GNER are operating special timetables today. Passengers can obtain more detailed route-by-route information from National Rail Enquiries by calling 08457 48 49 50 or by logging on to www.nationalrail.co.uk.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - National
020 3356 8700
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
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.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk