This late May bank holiday, we completed 277 vital projects up and down the country. All to give you and freight better journeys in the long term.
Here’s a rundown of some of the work in numbers:
£65.3m
The amount we invested over the long weekend on our planned package of works to keep our railway running reliably.
15,012
The metres of new rail our teams laid across the 20,000 miles of track we maintain throughout the country. That’s alongside 2,744 sleepers and 26,200 tonnes of ballast – the stones that support the track – we also installed throughout the long weekend.
Renewing track keeps our railway safe and reduces the disruption that track faults could otherwise cause to your journeys.
Three
We worked on a few of the biggest and most vital railway routes across the country over the long weekend.
This included starting our nine-day upgrade to various sections of the West Coast Main Line between Rugby and Stafford. This will keep your journeys running smoothly on Europe’s busiest mixed-use passenger and freight line.
We also began our four-week period of work on the Transpennine route between Huddersfield and Leedsthat willhelp transform journeys in the north of England.
Further south, our teams continued our £84m major upgrade of the Midland Main Line between Bedford and London that will help train operator East Midland Railway run its bi-mode trains. We’re renewing the overhead lines so trains can run at up to 125mph on this stretch of the route.
Two
The number of tunnels we worked on.
On the Transpennine route, engineers renewed two kilometres of track and drainage inside Morley tunnel. This will allow faster and more frequent trains to pass through in the future.
In the Blackheath tunnel in south London, we completed the first week of a 10-week upgrade. We’re investing £10m to repair the 175-year-old tunnel to prevent water seeping through and damaging the track. This major upgrade will help prevent delays and keep trains running reliably.
200
How much longer the platforms at Dewsbury station will be. Lengthening the platforms will allow longer, faster and greener electric trains to stop at the station – giving you more space and seats.
Further north, we also continued our £2.1m renewal of platform two at Hamilton West train station in South Lanarkshire. The platform’s worn out so we’re rebuilding it to help us keep services running safely and on time. We’ll also install tactile paving to improve accessibility.
