Media centre

Network Rail engineers are today starting work to try and prevent any further damage to the railway at Dawlish in Devon as another Atlantic storm system is forecast to hit the south-west of England on Saturday.

Network Rail’s National Delivery Service (NDS) has signed a contract with five suppliers to provide haulage for the company’s fleet of engineering trains in control period 5 (2014-2019).

After more than a month’s work by Network Rail engineers and contractor BAM Nuttall, the landslip at Ockley has been repaired five days ahead of schedule.

Network Rail has laid out its proposals, as tasked by the Government in summer 2012, for a new rail link from the Great Western main line to London Heathrow airport.

The railway between Exeter and Penzance is currently shut after damage at several locations caused by storm force winds, heavy seas and flooding.

Four suppliers have been appointed by Network Rail to deliver a £2bn programme to electrify more than two thousand miles of Britain’s railway over the next seven years, providing faster, quieter, greener and more reliable journeys for passengers and freight users and cutting the cost of the railway.

A further landslip on the railway between Battle and Robertsbridge means the railway will be closing for urgent repair work – starting after tomorrow morning’s rush-hour.

Network Rail is looking for apprentices to join the company and help deliver a multi-billion pound programme of work to renew and maintain one of the most intensely used networks in the world.