Media centre

Thursday 9 Nov 2023

Railway line reopens as Network Rail completes essential repair work at Braybrooke.

Region & Route:

Eastern

| Eastern: East Midlands

Passengers trains between Kettering and Leicester on the Midland Main Line are running their normal route today following embankment repair work south of Market Harborough.

Engineers have worked around the clock for the past week to stabilise part of the embankment that the Midland Main Line sits on, meaning that trains can resume their normal route between Kettering, Market Harborough, and Leicester.

Network Rail teams have installed soil nails into the side of the embankment before adding netting which was tensioned to strengthen the affected area. After positive tests to make sure the repair was working as planned, more ballast was laid and the tracks repaired. Today (Thursday) the line has reopened.

Gary Walsh, Route Director for Network Rail’s East Midlands route, said: “I want to thank passengers and our colleagues at East Midlands Railway for their patience and understanding while we carried out this complex job.

“Our teams have worked around the clock to strengthen part of the embankment at Braybrooke and I am very pleased that passenger services have resumed as planned today.”

Dave Meredith, Customer Services Director at East Midlands Railway, said: “We would like to thank our customers for their patience whilst Network Rail fixed this issue at Braybrooke.

“The work to stabilise the embankment unfortunately meant that we needed to operate a reduced timetable on our Intercity route, which has been hugely disruptive for our customers over the last week and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.”

Engineers will continue to monitor the track and the embankment.