Media centre

Tuesday 27 Jul 2004

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING….. NEW TRACKS WERE LAID

Region & Route:

| Southern

Over the past five weeks, as local residents slept, Network Rail renewed 1,282 yards of track at Raynes Park. Thirty railway employees worked through the nights to replace track nearing the end of its useful life. Over night work has the benefit of reducing disruption to passengers – but the timescales each night are tight and railway engineers have to work very hard to make sure the railway is ready to open each morning. David Pape, Route Director Network Rail, said: “We are committed improving performance and reliability on the railway in the South East.  We have invested £300,000 in laying new track at Raynes Park, which will help us achieve our performance targets and deliver benefits to passengers using this route.” Each yard of track weighs 113lbs and in total the railway workers installed 65 tonnes of new rail.  Over the five weeks, each worker would have handled two tonnes of steel, which is equivalent to more than 2,000 cans of baked beans! As well as laying new track, the team also cleared scrap and debris from the railway. This work is part of the massive £1.72 billion investment programme committed to the Southern region over the next three years.