Wednesday 28 Sep 2016

Residents invited to find out more about railway upgrade work at Swindon station

Swindon residents have been invited to a drop-in event to find out more about upcoming work to prepare the Great Western Main Line for electrification as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers.

Network Rail is carrying out essential work in and around Swindon station between November 2016 and October 2017 to facilitate the new fleet of faster, greener electric trains, which will provide more seats and more room for passengers.

In order to keep disruption to train services to a minimum, most of the work will take place overnight and over weekends. Work will also be carried out around the clock during a 52-hour closure of the railway over the Christmas period.

Members of the Network Rail project team will be on-hand throughout the event to explain more about the work taking place and to answer any questions.

David Brown, Network Rail’s project manager for Swindon station, said: “I’d like to thank the local community in advance for their patience and understanding while we carry out these essential improvements to modernise Brunel’s railway.

“The work at Swindon station is an essential part of our Railway Upgrade Plan and will pave the way for electric trains and the benefits these will bring to residents and passengers. These benefits include faster trains with more seats and more legroom, and less noise and air pollution for those who live close to the railway line.

“Everyone is welcome at our drop-in event and I’d urge anyone who has a question or wants to know more about our plans to come along.”

The event will take place on Thursday, 6 October from 5pm to 8pm in the Lecture Hall at UTC Swindon, Bristol Street, SN1 5ET

ENDS

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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.

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