Thursday 6 Mar 2025
Residents invited to track railway work near them through new digital service
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
- | Eastern: East Coast
- | Eastern: East Midlands
- | Eastern: North & East
Network Rail has launched a new digital notification service for more than seven million residents living near the railway across east and north east England.
The free email service provides up-to-date information about railway maintenance, upgrades and emergency work to residents living within 500 metres of the track.
The service is being provided by Network Rail’s Eastern region, which includes places such as north London, Anglia, the East Midlands, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Humberside and the north east of England up to the Scottish border. The region has seven and a half million residents who, if they sign up, will benefit from:
- Instant notifications about upcoming engineering work
- Real-time updates on maintenance projects
- Advance warnings about potentially disruptive work
- Regular progress updates on local railway improvements
The region operates over 6,000 miles of track, supporting 7,500 passenger services daily and moving more than one million tonnes of freight weekly. Any essential work on this vital network affects not just rail passengers but the millions of residents living alongside our railway.
The initiative follows a successful pilot scheme in 2023 across the Midland Main Line upgrade and Bolton to Wigan electrification scheme with 207,114 notifications sent to neighbours – and a total saving of £362,988 on paper and postage costs.
The email service - that just needs neighbours to sign-up by visiting www.networkrail.co.uk/railworknearme - will keep people up to date with the latest information about any work going on in their neighbourhood, especially that which might cause a disturbance, providing details in a clear, accessible and timely way.
Dean Shaw, head of communications for Network Rail’s East Coast route, said: "This new digital service represents a major step forward in how we communicate with our neighbours.
“We know that engineering work can sometimes impact local communities, which is why we're committed to giving our seven and a half million residents advance notice and real-time updates digitally about work happening near them.
“This service will help us be more transparent, efficient and environmentally friendly in our communications, while making sure residents have the information they need, when they need it."
The new scheme saves the railway £1.65 per print letter – funds that can be reinvested elsewhere on the network. Letters will of course still be used for those not able to access on-line systems.
Notes to Editors
- Digital notifications is an opt-in service
- You can manage your preferences and the type of emails you would like to receive by clicking the link at the bottom of the emails we send you
- For information on how we store and use your data, check our privacy policy
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Chantele Hodson
Media Relations Executive
chantele.hodson@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.
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