Tuesday 6 Apr 2010
SUCCESSFUL EASTER MEANS A BETTER RAILWAY FOR PASSENGERS
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail today announced the successful completion of more than £40 million of improvement work over the Easter break, delivering a bigger and better railway for passengers.
This included finishing a key stage of a project in Winchester that will take 50,000 lorries off Britain's roads every year, several more milestones on the £5.5 billion Thameslink Programme and improvements as part of the Olympic Transport Plan.
Simon Kirby, director of infrastructure projects said: "Once again, our engineers have worked tremendously hard over the Easter weekend to deliver improvements on time, bringing better journeys for passengers. The latest technology and new ways of working are increasingly enabling us to get more done, more efficiently. This is good news for passengers as it means we can keep the railway open for longer."
Notes to editors
Highlights: Work completed over Easter
St Cross Tunnel
This tunnel in the Winchester area is being widened to enable bigger freight trains to travel through it. This is part of a £71m project that will remove up to 50,000 lorries a year from the region’s roads by providing a cheaper, quicker and more practical way to transport goods around the country.
Luton, Swanley and Farringdon
Work has finished across London and the South East on Network Rail’s largest project; the £5.5bn Thameslink Programme. As well as widening a rail bridge at Luton Station and work to reduce delays in the Swanley Junction area, important signalling equipment was moved from Farringdon station in preparation for a major redevelopment that will allow passengers to interchange between Thameslink, Crossrail and London Underground.
Basingstoke
The final stage of a massive £145m project to improve the track and signalling on the Bournemouth Main Lines was completed. The work, which took place north of Basingstoke station towards Woking, will improve the reliability of journeys for passengers.
Kings Cross
More space on trains at Kings Cross station is now a step closer after work over Easter to install and test the overhead power lines required for a new platform.
Liverpool St to Stratford
Network Rail is investing heavily to improve the track and overhead power lines on the route into Liverpool Street station. Engineers are working to improve reliability and reduce delays by splitting out passenger and freight trains. Longer platforms at Stratford will be able to accommodate 12 car trains which will mean more space for passengers.
Sustained investment
Investment in the railway is ongoing, with work completed every night in time for train services to run as planned the next day. During the two May bank holidays Network Rail will have another opportunity to complete a large programme of work at a time when the railway is quieter. This is part of a £35bn investment by Network Rail to provide passengers with more seats and more trains going to more destinations.
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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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