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A new hi-tech drone and rapid response vehicle are ready to reduce railway delays in the Midlands during heatwave conditions.

Network Rail is inviting residents to find out more about major work to reconstruct a bridge which carries the railway over Gainsborough Road.

Vital track and signalling upgrades are planned at weekends throughout August and September to improve reliability and drive down delays.

Brighton Main Line passengers can look forward to more reliable journeys after Network Rail invested £11m to carry out critical repairs to earthworks at Haywards Heath and Balcombe this month.

Commenting on the RMT's announcement of further national strike action on 27 July, Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said:

Network Rail engineers will be working hard this summer on an essential project to bring more reliable journeys to South Western Railway customers travelling from stations between Hounslow and Barnes via Brentford.

Plans to improve St Albans City station are getting back on track this summer, as Network Rail resumes work on the £6.8m revamp.

For over 30 years railway people calling control in Blackfriars would hear “Kent Control Stephen Eaves speaking” on the other end of the phone, and know they were in safe hands.