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Monday 18 May 2009

VITAL RAIL WORKS FOR EAST MIDLANDS OVER BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND

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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 22-25) to invest millions in Britain’s railway.

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

In the East Midlands work will take place on Midland Main Line between Kettering and Harrowden junction. This £11.5m project will open a new 90mph bi-directional third line which will carry both passenger trains and freight. This work will eliminate the bottleneck between Harrowden and Kettering South Junctions increasing the number of tracks from two to three, reducing delays, improving journey times and increasing the amount of trains able to pass through this area.

Dyan Crowther, Route Director for Network Rail, said:

“The improvements being carried out across the railway network will help further improve reliability and give us the means to run more trains on the line in future. To make this a reality our engineers will be working day and night 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 significantly more trains running over the spring bank holiday weekend 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 .