This Easter bank holiday weekend we’re completing £86m of essential work to give you and freight better journeys for the long term.
Here’s a rundown of some of our plans in numbers:
300+
Our teams will carry out over 300 different upgrades works across Britain this Easter. Many of our bank holiday works are planned years in advance so they cause less disruption to your journeys. We aim to minimise the impact of our works by scheduling them during the bank holidays where possible. We also carry out many of them overnight whenever we can.
1,000+ miles
We’re working on long stretches of the West Coast Main Line, which runs north from London Euston station into Edinburgh via Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
Teams are renewing 350 metres of track near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, upgrading over 200 metres of drainage near Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire and carrying out improvement work in Stockport and Carlisle.
The new freight interchange in Northampton will also connect to the West Coast Main Line. Once finished, the new freight facility will have over five million square feet of warehouse space – for a big boost to the freight industry.
Three
The number of new drains along with 180 metres of new drainage we’ll install at Barnwell junction in Cambridgeshire on the West Anglia Main Line. Managing our drainage is an important part of keeping our railway running reliably through heavier and more frequent rain.
We’ll also carry out work for the Cambridge re-signalling project along the line – between Cambridge and Ely and Cambridge and Newmark. The £194m project will improve the efficiency and reliability of your journeys in the area by modernising the signalling, or traffic lights, of the railway.
One
We’ll continue rebuilding one of the platforms at Mirfield station throughout the long weekend. We’re increasing its length and renewing the track to allow longer and faster electric trains to pass through. We plan to similarly upgrade the rest of the platforms at the station and add an extra platform so we can increase the number of trains passing through – giving you even more journeys and seats. It’s part of our multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade to improve your journeys in the north.
9,936 metres
The new rail that’s replacing old and tired rail across our railway. For instance, on Sunday 20 April, engineers will renew the rail on the Essex Thameside line – at Jurgens Lane in West Thurrock, Grays station and Purfleet. This will keep your journeys safe and reduce the disruption that faults could otherwise cause.
88
Engineering trains we’ll use to get our teams and equipment safely to, between and from each of the projects.
1,392 wagons
We’ll use thousands of wagons to help move material around our work sites safely. They often carry ballast – the stones that support the track – to our projects, and waste away from our sites.
Nine
The number of huge Kirow cranes we’ll use for lifting very heavy objects like large sections of track or bridges into place.
5,694
The total number of sleepers engineers are installing. Traditional sleepers are made from concrete or wood but we also use sleepers made from recycled plastic as part of our effort to bring you a greener railway.
33,320
We’ll also install tonnes of new ballast to support the track. They help the track with drainage and make sure the sleepers stay in place to prevent the track moving.
