Media centre

Thursday 30 Apr 2009

VITAL IMPROVEMENT WORKS FOR BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Following the successful delivery of rail improvements around Britain at Easter, Network Rail will again work around the clock over this bank holiday weekend (May 2-4) to invest millions in Britain’s railway.

The improvements are just part of the £35 billion that will be invested in the railways in the next five years.

In Scotland, our engineers will be working to renew track on the West Coast Main Line and on the route between Carlisle and south west Scotland. In the Central Belt, significant improvement works will be taking place at Carmuirs East junction, near Falkirk, in a £2.5m project to renew and reconfigure track and provide for future improvements to journey times through the area.

Iain Coucher, Network Rail’s chief executive said: “Our investment of £35 billion in Britain’s rail network means passengers will enjoy even more reliable, frequent and comfortable journeys in the future. To make this a reality our engineers will be working day and night across the country over the bank holiday weekend.

“Fewer people travel at bank holidays, so this is the best time for us to do our work. To reduce the impact on passengers, we have been working with our rail industry partners to keep the vast majority of services running over the bank holiday weekends. There will be 2,000 more trains running over the two bank holiday weekends this May than in 2008.”

Although most of the network is open as usual, Network Rail advises travellers to plan their journeys in advance. Passengers can check before they travel with National Rail enquiries on 08457 48 49 50 or at www.nationalrail.co.uk/holidays .