August bank holiday engineering works complete
We’ve just completed £90m of August bank holiday improvements to give you better journeys.
Here’s what our teams got up to …
Soham’s new station inches closer
We reached a major milestone for the new railway station in Soham in Cambridgeshire. We connected the developing station at Soham to the wider signalling network
This will allow future train services to start to call at the station safely from December, when the station is scheduled to open.
The new station, which has been taking shape over the last 12 months on the site of the previous station, will provide a new gateway and choice for residents to move around the area.
Better journeys on track in Macclesfield
In Macclesfield in Cheshire, we renewed the tracks to reduce disruption and maintenance in the future. That’s new sleepers and ballast – the stones that stabilise the track bed.
The new track at Gaw End will also make your journeys smoother:
Signalling more reliable services
We worked on new signals for Greater Manchester.
Signals are the traffic lights of the railway; we’re investing in our signalling systems across Britain to replace outdated systems and improve the reliability and safety of your rail services.
Across the railway, we’re replacing trackside signalling equipment with modern, in-cab computer displays and control centre systems.
This means the future of railway signalling belongs inside the train, bringing all information from one of 12 regional operating centres around Britain to the driver, instantly.
Across Britain, we’re carrying out the complex electrical work needed to ‘recontrol’ the signals, which involves moving control of the signals from the side of the track to new, state-of-the-art operating centres.
How do signalling upgrades improve the railway?
Two new bridges for Warrington
In Warrington, we invested £5m replacing two railway bridges. The new bridges – near Warrington Central railway station – will mean more reliable journeys.
But this job was a tight squeeze!
London Waterloo
At London Waterloo station, we installed new wheel timbers.
They’re part of the tracks – wooden beams that provide extra support to the rails.
We’ve put them in on platforms 16 and 17 at the station.
We’re responsible for maintaining and renewing 20,000 miles of track all over Britain.
Click here to find out more about this vital part of our infrastructure.
Find out more about London Waterloo – Britain’s biggest and busiest railway station.
Conducting better services
Helping better services from London Waterloo to Guildford in Surrey are new conductor rails that we installed in the Horsley area.
They’ll mean a more reliable power supply for South Western Railway services.
Meanwhile, we laid new rails in Twickenham in South West London as we replaced a junction in the area:
Why do we do work over bank holiday weekends?
Read more:
Why do speed restrictions affect your journeys?
Why the end of the gauge war didn’t standardise Britain’s railway