Media centre

Monday 16 Nov 2015

Railway Upgrade Plan to deliver better, more reliable railway for passengers and freight this Christmas

Region & Route:

National

Hundreds of thousands of passengers and freight users are set to benefit from one of the biggest Christmas and New Year investment programmes ever carried out on Britain’s rail network.

Over 20,000 members of Network Rail’s orange army will be spending their Christmas Day and the days that follow working on the railway across Britain to deliver the Railway Upgrade Plan. New station facilities, longer platforms, extra tracks, new junctions and thousands of pieces of new, more reliable equipment will be installed and delivered in a £150m investment programme that will begin late on Christmas Eve once the last trains have run.

Almost 500 individual improvement projects will be carried out by Network Rail across Britain over the festive period, the majority of which will have no impact on passengers. Where there are changes to services as a result of upgrade work, a comprehensive advertising campaign is underway to make sure passengers are able to make informed decisions about their travel.

The work is timed to take advantage of a relatively quieter time of the year when, on average, fewer than half the usual 4.5m people use the railway each day – enabling Network Rail and train operators to minimise disruption as much as possible.

Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said “This Christmas and New Year, our 20,000-strong army of rail workers will be working round the clock to deliver our Railway Upgrade Plan, providing better, more reliable journeys for passengers across Britain.

“I’m acutely conscious that many people want to use the railway over the festive period to reunite with their friends and families, so it’s good news that the vast majority of the network is running normally.

“Passengers have shown themselves to be incredibly understanding of planned improvement work and I’d like to thank them in advance for their support and understanding as we deliver the big improvements that the travelling public want to see.

“The number of people travelling by rail continues to grow to record levels and this Christmas and New Year’s investment programme forms a key part of our Railway Upgrade Plan that is aimed at meeting surging demand and improving and expanding our congested railway network.”

Barry Robinson, a track section manager from Leeds, is the face of Network Rail’s nationwide ‘Check Before You Travel’ campaign which uses posters, billboards and digital screens at stations as well as online and print adverts to urge people to check for changes to their journeys over the festive period.

“This Christmas, I’ll be giving up time with my family to help make sure we get the essential work done to keep the railway safe and reliable for the travelling public," said Barry.

“I’ve put my name forward for the Christmas period this year because quite a few of the others on the team have young kids and want to spend time with them. I’m lucky that I’ve been there and done that, which is why I’m happy to do my bit this Christmas, along with thousands of others at Network Rail.

“The amount of trains coming in and out of Leeds station takes its toll on the tracks, so the work definitely needs doing and doing it over Christmas means less disruption for passengers. There’ll be plenty of time for a turkey sandwich when the shift is over.”

An independent review of how the rail industry plans and schedules major improvement work was carried out earlier this year. The review concluded that Christmas, Easter and bank holidays were the best times to carry out upgrades requiring major line closures, particularly in and around London where the network is busiest and access for engineers is most difficult.

Mark Carne continued: “Since last Christmas we have completely reviewed and revised how we plan and manage major upgrades. The new measures we have put in place have seen us already deliver over £250m of improvements over four bank holiday weekends on time, including the single biggest track replacement project ever at Bathampton in August. That’s almost 1,000 projects aimed at improving our railway for passengers and businesses.

“Christmas is a quieter time on the railway and our plans will minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers. We are continuing to review all the risks associated with our improvement programme this Christmas to make sure that our plans are as robust as possible and we deliver improvements for passenger on time.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Although most of the network will be unaffected by planned improvement work, passengers are advised to check their journey plans if travelling over the Christmas and New Year period.

Selected major improvement work:

Thameslink Programme – London Bridge

Work continues to completely rebuild London Bridge station and the surrounding railway – the single biggest station redevelopment ever undertaken in Britain. This Christmas, engineers will be bringing a new railway viaduct over Borough Market into service, enabling more trains to run to and through central London when work completes in 2018.

Crossrail – London/Essex/Berkshire

Network Rail will be delivering improvements for Crossrail to the east and west of London, including platform extensions, new track and signalling and upgraded overhead power lines. Paddington and Liverpool Street services will be affected, though not on working days.

Purley

Engineers will work round-the-clock to replace a major junction on the Brighton Main Line south of Purley, providing more reliable journeys for tens of thousands of passengers each day. Journeys to and from Gatwick Airport will be affected over the Christmas and New Year period, with diverted trains and additional buses. Network Rail has worked closely with train operators and the airport to raise awareness among travellers.

Greater Lincolnshire

Almost £100m is being invested in the railway across the Greater Lincolnshire area, with a carefully planned 17-day closure this December and January allowing engineers to carry out a huge improvement programme.  The work involves upgrading level crossings, stations and bridges, replacing track and updating 60 miles of signalling between Immingham (home to one of the UK’s biggest and busiest ports), Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes.