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Late May bank holiday works completed

Our teams worked over the bank holiday weekend on 620 projects worth £80m to give you better rail journeys.

Here are just some of them …

Work in and around London King’s Cross to enable more reliable journeys and more seats for you in the future. It’s part of the £1.2bn East Coast Upgrade. Once completed, the East Coast Upgrade will enable an extra two long-distance services an hour into and out of London.

Track improvements at Kensal Green in London to make it more reliable. We replaced critical cables near Balham. It’s part of our four-year plan modernise 1980s track and signalling into London Victoria. Signals are essential to the railway – the keep you safe by telling trains if it’s safe to proceed.

Our engineers prepared for a project to build a new Thanet Parkway station in Kent. They’ve been screw piling and sheet piling, where we drive steel into the ground to create strong foundations.

London King's Cross East Coast Upgrade May 2021 - engineering train outside tunnel

We refurbished bridges, including one between London Victoria and Clapham Junction, which has had a fresh lick of paint.

We replaced a bridge on the River Stour in Chartham on the line to Canterbury West … and replaced track and panels on the down line. Watch this video to find out why it’s a first for us at Network Rail:

Up North, Leeds station got new overhead line equipment to give power to electric trains.

We improved the signals at Trafford Park in Manchester – and at Preston Brook in Warrington:

Wagons and machinery on track in the Preston area, daytime
Part of our signalling works in the Preston area

Elsewhere, we tamped ballast in South Carlisle – compacting the gravel the tracks sit on for smoother journeys:

Tamping trains tamping ballast in South Carlisle
Tamping trains in South Carlisle

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