Thursday 8 Jul 2010
WINCHESTER RAIL BRIDGE WORKS NEAR COMPLETION
- Region & Route:
- Southern: Wessex
- | Southern
The second of three bridges in the Winchester area which are being rebuilt to enable freight to be transported by rail in a quicker, cheaper and greener way reopens fully on Monday 12 July.
The new bridge on Andover Road partially reopened almost a week ahead of schedule on Tuesday 6 July after a three-month closure. In addition to allowing larger freight containers to pass beneath it, the new structure is wider, allowing an improved footpath to have been build and space for a cycle track.
Work to rebuild the bridge at Stoke Charity is progressing on schedule and is due to reopen on 30 July.
Richard O’Brien, Network Rail’s route director for Wessex, said: “Britain relies on rail freight to get food onto supermarket shelves, consumer goods into our shops, coal to our power stations and raw materials to manufacturing businesses. Furthermore, it directly contributes £870m to the economy, takes tens of thousands of vehicles off the road to reduce congestion and produces 76% less carbon dioxide than road freight.
“Schemes such as the upgrade of the railway between Southampton and the West Midlands are vital for these benefits to be achieved now and into the future. We thank the people of Winchester for their patience and co-operation while we carried out this important work.”
Councillor Mel Kendal, executive member for environment at Hampshire County Council, said: “Together with Winchester City Council, we have worked closely with Network Rail to minimise potential disruption caused by Network Rail’s bridge works, and make sure residents were well informed about progress, diversions and closures during this time.
“I’d like to thank everyone living and working in Winchester for their patience during the railway bridge works.”
Since 1997, road traffic in Hampshire has increased by 13% to 9,414 million vehicle miles every year. Evidence suggests that the poor reliability and congestion on the road network has a negative impact on productivity. This costs the economy £7-8bn every year, and the figure is estimated to rise to at least £24bn by 2025. Investment in schemes to make rail freight the best option for transporting goods around the country, such as the upgrade of the line between Southampton and the West Midlands, are vital to take vehicles off the road, and boost the economy.
Notes to editors
About the scheme
Freight services are indispensable to everyday life. They deliver food, clothing, electronics and other goods to stock shops and supermarkets, coal to provide electricity to power the nation and aggregates for major industries. The freight industry makes a valuable contribution to the regional and national economy, and the government is investing £350m in projects to achieve the significant economic, efficiency and environmental benefits rail freight offers.
The Southampton to Nuneaton freight upgrade scheme will bring the following benefits:
Vehicles off the road
It is estimated this scheme will enable the transfer of up to 50,000 container freight journeys a year from the Britain’s roads to the railway. This will help reduce carbon emissions and ease traffic congestion on the road network.
Environment
Rail is also one of the most environmentally friendly forms of transport. Road freight generates six times more carbon dioxide than rail freight for each tonne moved, so the greater transfer of freight from road to rail as a result of this scheme will lead to a significant reduction of carbon emissions.
Efficiency
High cube containers are larger than standard containers, and therefore more items can be transported within them, making them a more efficient means of distributing goods. Rail can be a cheaper, quicker and a more practical way for businesses to transport their goods around the country and beyond. At present high cube containers are too big to be carried on standard height platform wagons on much of the rail network. Therefore the only way to carry them by rail is on special low wagons. However, this reduces efficiency and capacity by up to 33%, making rail a less competitive form of transport for freight.
Economic growth
The upgraded rail freight link will improve the competitiveness and encourage economic growth within the South East region. This project will also make it easier to import and export goods, helping Britain compete more effectively in the global market.
ABOUT THE SCHEME
The route will take freight trains from Southampton to the West Coast Main Line near Nuneaton, via Winchester, Basingstoke, Didcot, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Warwick.
Improvement works are being planned along this route to structures which are not currently large enough for high-cube containers to pass through. These are scheduled to be carried out over the next two years.
Funding for this project has been agreed from the Department for Transport (DfT) via a Transport Innovation Fund TIF(P) grant. Additional funding is being provided by South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), ABP, DP World Southampton, Advantage West Midlands (AWM), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Network Rail Discretionary Fund. The DfT’s Transport Innovation Fund, The Future of Transport" (July 2004) supports the costs of smarter, innovative local transport packages that combine demand management measures *support innovative mechanisms which raise new funds; *support the funding of regional, inter-regional and local schemes that are beneficial to national productivity.
The current freight container market is seeing a significant growth in the percentage of ‘high cube’ containers. The usage of 9’ 6” containers currently stands at over 40%. This is expected to rise to between 50% and 70% by 2019.
Network Rail, in partnership with the passenger and freight train operators, has consulted with a range of individuals and organisations, including Hampshire county council, Winchester city council and local politicians throughout the planning of these projects.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk
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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