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Tuesday 3 Apr 2018

Reliability boost for passengers as Network Rail completes replacement of Victorian railway bridge in Wandsworth as part of Easter upgrade work

Region & Route:

Southern: Wessex

| Southern

The railway line through Wandsworth re-opened this morning following Network Rail’s successful replacement of Fairfield Bridge as part of a bumper £118 million nationwide Easter investment in Britain’s rail infrastructure.

The 138-year-old bridge was replaced over the Easter bank holiday weekend with a brand new 75-tonne British-made structure, which will improve reliability for passengers and allow a speed restriction on the line to be lifted.

More than 45 engineers and track staff worked around the clock to deliver this £5.5 million investment, completing 2,250 work hours.

 Becky Lumlock, route managing director for Network Rail’s Wessex route, said:  “I’d like to say a big thank you to passengers for bearing with us while we completed this vital work as part of the Railway Upgrade Plan over the Easter weekend.

“We recognise there’s never a good time for services to be disrupted, but the extended bank holiday weekend presented an opportunity to complete this project at a time when fewer people travel by rail, making sure we caused as little disruption as possibly.

“The half-a-million passengers that complete journeys through this area on a weekly basis will benefit from a more reliable railway thanks to this upgrade.”

Elsewhere on the south western rail network over the Easter weekend, further reliability improvements were made with the completion of signalling renewals between Vauxhall and Clapham Junction.

Bridge strengthening and refurbishment work was also completed on the Hammersmith Road (Rocks Lane) overbridge, which spans over all four platforms at Barnes station.

ENDS