Reliability boost for passengers as Network Rail complete £2.7 million bridge replacement in Portsmouth: Burnaby 16-02-18

Saturday 17 Feb 2018

Reliability boost for passengers as Network Rail complete £2.7 million bridge replacement in Portsmouth

Region & Route:
Southern: Wessex
| Southern

Passengers are able to travel by rail between Portsmouth Harbour and Portsmouth & Southsea station again from this morning (Saturday 17th February) after Network Rail successfully replaced a 142-year-old railway bridge with a new 88-tonne British steel structure.

More than 50 Network Rail ‘Team Orange’ engineers have been working around the clock at Burnaby Road for five days to replace the life-expired bridge, delivering a more reliable train service for the future.

Load restrictions were put in place on the bridge to protect the previous structure, limiting freight train use. Passenger services would have required similar restrictions had this work not been carried out.

The original aesthetic of the former bridge has been reflected in the new structure, which has been painted with the cream and blue colours of the Portsmouth crest.

Stuart Kistruck, director of route asset management for Network Rail’s Wessex route, said:

“I’d like to thank passengers, motorists and those living in the local area for bearing with us as we’ve undertaken this important work. I’d also like to give thanks to our project team, who have completed this work safely and on-time despite some challenging weather conditions on site.

“This crossing is a really important part of our network, with thousands of trains passing over it every year carrying millions of passengers, so I’m very pleased we have been able to put in a new bridge that will support those journeys for many more years to come.”

ENDS

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 - Wessex Route
07710 959476
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

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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.

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.

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