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Monday 6 Aug 2018

Southend Victoria line set for installation of 19km of new overhead wires this autumn

Region & Route:

Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

A total of 19km of new overhead wires is planned to be installed between Mountnessing and Wickford on the Southend Victoria branch line over the coming months, as part of a £46m upgrade to replace the overhead wiring system.

The existing wiring system, which was built in the 1950s and is the oldest in the country, is being replaced with a new system that will be more reliable, adapts to temperature and will mean fewer delays for passengers.

The work will also allow for Greater Anglia’s new trains to run, and allow for more services to run in the future to meet growing demand on the busy line.

The work takes place at weekends and starts on Saturday 1st September until Sunday 28 October. This means a rail replacement service will run between Southend Victoria and Shenfield.

In order to speed up completion of the programme, week night closures between Wickford and Southend Victoria will continue until 29th November.

Meliha Duymaz, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “This line is in vital need of upgrading in order to run a reliable service now and in the future. We will be working week nights and at weekends throughout autumn in order to complete the programme as quickly as possible. The new overhead wiring system will completely transform the line as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan, making journeys more reliable and allowing for new trains and more services to run. I’d like to thank passengers for their continued patience while this work takes place.”

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We apologise to customers for the disruption this engineering works causes. We know people would rather stay on the train for the whole of their journey, but I’d like to reassure passengers that we will have plenty of rail replacement buses and extra staff to make sure that they can complete their journeys. We and Network Rail are investing heavily in the railway in the Southend area so that it will be more reliable and served by modern state of the art trains.”

So far, 447 structures which will carry the new wires, have been installed between Shenfield and Southend during weeknight shifts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. The remaining 83 structures will be replaced over the next year. The week night closures this year are scheduled to finish on 29th November.

Between Shenfield and Wickford, nearly 12km new overhead wire has been installed. A total of 128km will be installed along the whole line.

Notes to editors

In addition to upgrades on the Southend Victoria branch line, works are also scheduled for the main line as set out below:

	Main line	Southend Victoria
Saturday 1 September	Marks Tey to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 2 September	Ipswich to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 8 September	Marks Tey to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 9 September	Colchester to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 15 September	Marks Tey to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 16 September	Colchester to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 22 September	Marks Tey to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 23 September	Colchester to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 29 September		Shenfield to Wickford
Sunday 30 September	Colchester to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Wickford
Saturday 6 October		Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 7 October	Ipswich to Ingatestone	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 13 October	Norwich to Ipswich	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 14 October	Norwich to Ipswich	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 21 October		Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 22 October		Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 27 October		Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Sunday 28 October	Norwich to Ipswich	Shenfield to Southend Victoria and Southminster
Saturday 3 November	Ingatestone to London Liverpool Street	Billericay to London Liverpool Street
Sunday 4 November	Colchester to London Liverpool Street	Shenfield to London Liverpool Street
Saturday 17 November	Ingatestone to London Liverpool Street	Billericay to London Liverpool Street
Sunday 18 November	Ingatestone to London Liverpool Street	Billericay to London Liverpool Street
Saturday 24 November	Ingatestone to London Liverpool Street	TBC
Sunday 25 November	Ingatestone to London Liverpool Street	TBC