Friday 31 Oct 2003

£xxx SPEND TO IMPROVE THE xxx TO PETTSWOOD LINE

Region & Route:
| Southern
Network Rail has invested £xxx improving the tracks on the xxx to Pettswood line.  As part of Network Rail’s commitment to rebuilding the railway engineers worked around the clock to renew xxx yards of track between xxx and xxx stations. Continuously welded rail with concrete sleepers replaced xx (jointed?) rail, using a total of xxx tonnes of ballast, xxx sleepers and xxx yards of rail.  Passengers can now expect a smoother, quieter and more reliable journey. All work carried out was subject to an environmental and ecological survey to ensure that protected species were not disturbed during the work.  The work was specifically programmed to tale place at the weekends of xxx to ensure that peak commuter travel periods remained unaffected. Network Rail and Connex worked together, ensuring passengers and residents were notified well in advance.             Network Rail’s Southern Regional Director, Robin Gisby said: “This work forms part of Network Rail’s commitment to rebuilding Britain’s railway. We appreciate that passengers using the line expect an improved service and this investment is a step to delivering the service they rightly deserve.”

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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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