Tuesday 2 Jan 2007

RECOVERY ON TRACK AT KILMARNOCK

Region & Route:
Scotland’s Railway: Scotland
Rail services through Kilmarnock are on schedule to resume as normal on Wednesday 3 January following a fire at the signalling centre on Christmas night. Engineers have worked around the clock to restore services since the fire, which British Transport Police (BTP) believe was started deliberately. David Simpson Network Rail’s Route Director for Scotland said: “This deliberate act of vandalism virtually destroyed the signalling centre and meant disruption for passengers in and around Kilmarnock. We are working closely with BTP to apprehend those responsible. “Restoring services was a massive task but many engineers gave up their Christmas holiday in order to return them to normal as quickly as possible. I want to thank them for their hard work and dedication.” A First ScotRail spokesman said: "We have been working closely with Network Rail over the past week and are delighted that this hard work has been successful in restoring our services. Many of our customers will be returning to work on 3 January after the festive break and we are delighted to be able to offer them a full service on their return." For more information on the services available visit www.firstscotrail.com or call National Rail Enquiries on 08457 48 49 50.

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 - Scotland
0141 555 4109
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