We invested £142m in about 400 projects over the festive period to give you a better railway.
Thank you for bearing with us while thousands of colleagues worked around the clock on big upgrades and essential maintenance. We plan lots of engineering at this time of year because it gives us the chance to get a large amount done very quickly when fewer people are travelling.
So what did we get up to? Here’s a look at just some of our important work …
London Liverpool Street upgrade
We continued our extensive upgrade of the London Liverpool Street station. We installed 10 of the planned 21 new ticket gates inside. These new ticket gates will help you move through the station faster and more comfortably, easing congestion. Two of the new ticket gates are wide access gates – making the station more accessible.
We also continued renewing the roof. This involves replacing 600 of the glass panels that make up the roof – giving you a brighter station.
Preparations for new stations
We also took use of this time to prepare the railway for new stations. Over 350 colleagues carried out essential drainage, track and signalling work in preparation for West London’s newest station – Old Oak Common.
Meanwhile, teams in Cambridge worked to connect the two tracks running through the new Cambridge South station. We also installed solar panels on the station’s canopy for green energy.
Engineers also continued remodelling Shepreth Branch Junction nearby. We upgraded the track, electrified the overhead power lines and renewed the switches and crossings – or the movable track sections. This will allow us to run faster trains here in the future – increasing line speed from 30mph to 50mph.
Electrifying
We installed over 3,500 metres of new overhead electric cable. Electrifying our railway helps us give you and freight greener, more reliable and better journeys. Electric trains are also quieter for passengers and people living near the railway.
That’s why we used this quieter period to continue upgrading the overhead lines on a section of the Midland Main Line near Bedford. It’s part of our wider Midland Main Line upgrade that will allow train operator East Midland Railway to run it’s new bi-mode trains this year.
Signalling upgrades
We also installed 40kms of new signalling cable. Our signalling system is vital – it keeps you safe by telling train drivers when it’s safe to go.
For instance, engineers continued installing a new signalling system on the railway in south London between Herne Hill, Nunhead and Battersea. It’s part of the South London resignalling programme that will keep signals and your trains running reliably.
We also made significant progress on our Cambridge signalling renewal programme. We replaced parts of the 40-year-old signalling panel at the Cambridge power signal box with new digital workstations. These cover the Anglia route between Cambridge and Ely – giving you better journeys.
Freight
Much of our festive work will benefit our freight partners as well. But we did have a few projects focussed just on freight.
For example, we continued our upgrade of the Crewe Basford Hall independent lines in Cheshire. These lines take the hundreds of freight trains travelling on the West Coast Main Line around Crewe station and back onto the mainline.
We carried out drainage, track and signalling upgrades at this vital freight junction. This will help us move essential goods up and down the country safely and efficiently for years to come.
