Christmas works success

Network Rail’s biggest ever holiday engineering programme

Infrastructure News

Network Rail has completed its biggest ever programme of Christmas engineering works, which has covered more than 260 projects valued at over £160 million, delivered by more than 32,000 workers over a 10-day period.

98.6% of possessions were handed back on time. The most significant issue was at Edinburgh Waverley on the morning of 27 December, when low temperatures caused a number of points to freeze – this caused 3,135 delay minutes.

In addition to the landmark project to fully open the concourse at London Bridge station and remodel the railway around the station (p50), and to complete electrification between Maidenhead and Didcot (p8), a series of other projects have been completed across the network.

CROSSRAIL WORKS

Preparatory work for Crossrail included upgrades on both the Great Eastern and Great Western main lines. East of the capital this featured work to connect the Elizabeth Line’s central tunnels to the main line, alongside further station upgrade works, remodelling at Gidea Park sidings and signalling improvements. Also on the Great Eastern, installation of 10km of new overhead wires in the Ilford area forms part of ongoing overhead line replacement on the GEML, meaning there is now a continuous 37km section of auto-tensioned overhead line between Ilford and Chelmsford, while at Liverpool Street the interrupted power supply was replaced to improve the reliability of the signalling. Elsewhere in East Anglia structural repairs to a bridge at Manea, on the line between Ely and Peterborough, have enabled a speed restriction to be lifted.

Crossrail works west of the capital included a major signalling data change in the Paddington area, provision of electrified routes into the two Crossrail tunnels and completion of electrification of the Crossrail depot at Old Oak Common. Royal Oak Sidings and Paddington station’s platform 2 were also electrified over Christmas. In addition to electrification works, other projects on the Western included track works at Oxford ahead of a blockade this summer and signalling upgrades in the Bristol area.

NEW PLATFORM AT REDHILL

On the southern region, away from the Thameslink works the most notable piece of new infrastructure is the new platform 0 at Redhill, which aims to remove conflicts between North Downs and Brighton main line services. This scheme also saw a simplified switch and crossing layout brought into use, with the whole aiming to increase capacity and provide greater flexibility to services through the area. In the Southampton area an £8 million track renewal was completed at Northam Junction, covering 13 point ends and 234 yards of plain line, while drainage works in Sevenoaks Tunnel were also undertaken, with 65% more drainage replaced than planned.

Progress with the Birmingham New Street Area Renewals saw phases 4 and 5 commissioned; this project facilitates transfer of operational control from Birmingham New Street Power Signal Box to the West Midlands Signalling Centre at Saltley. Elsewhere in the West Midlands, plans to install wire runs through Barnt Green as part of electrification to Bromsgrove were cancelled, although other installation including erection of four new OLE structures was completed.

BLACKPOOL WIRING WORK

On the West Coast main line there was waterproofing of the Trent and Mersey Canal bridge, near Colwich Junction south of Stafford, and installation of a concrete over-slab and waterproofing of Wyre Viaduct between Lancaster and Preston. At Preston wire runs were installed to connect newly-installed overhead wires on the Blackpool North line to the WCML. A key benefit of this is that an isolation can now be taken on the Preston – Blackpool lines without the need to take an isolation on the WCML.

Other work in the North West included plain line track renewals through platforms 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly and preparatory work for the opening of the new platform 8 at Liverpool Lime Street, including installation of overhead wires, supporting main commissioning works in July. Further south on the WCML, enabling works for HS2 at Euston continued with installation of two new undertrack crossings in the station throat to enable a new cable management system to be implemented later this year, while 605 yards of the Up line in Crick Tunnel, between Northampton and Rugby, was renewed.

New platform at Redhill: unit No 700103 leaves platform 0 with the 14.29 Three Bridges to Bedford service on 11 January 2018. The alterations here have seen platform 1, to the left of the train, become a terminal platform to be used by GWR’s North Downs services, with London-bound services running from either platform 0 or platform 2.
Ken Cordner

KENTISH TOWN TRACK SLAB

On the Midland main line, a major project at Kentish Town to remove and remediate 314 yards of slab track was carried out, with the main body of the work completed and the remainder scheduled for further possessions between February and June. Further north, five replacement point ends were installed in the Kettering area, while preparations for the Derby remodelling later this year included abandonment and recovery of the goods lines east of the station, recovery of a signal gantry north of the station and installation of a new gantry to the south.

In Scotland work has continued at Edinburgh Waverley station with new track installed at platforms 10 and 11 in preparation for the commissioning of new infrastructure in December 2018. At Aberdeen a track renewal at platform 7 forms part of gauge clearance works for new Class 800 units, while switch and crossing renewal at Coatbridge and an 896-yard track renewal on the Up main line between Glasgow and Edinburgh at Roddinglaw were both completed.

TUBE WORKS TOO

The Christmas holiday period also saw significant works on the London Underground, with Transport for London completing a number of projects. This included installation of cabling to support the new Thales signalling system on the sub-surface lines, replacement of three junctions at Earl’s Court, and installation of two junctions to connect the new Northern Line extension to Battersea with the existing line at Kennington.