Rail Minister tours GWML improvements

Rail Minister Claire Perry yesterday (August 27) visited sites on the Great Western Main Line undergoing improvement work ahead of electrification.

Perry visited Bathampton Junction, the Box Tunnel and Sydney Gardens, where work to lower the tracks through Bath and its surrounding area is nearly complete.

The work is part of the biggest project on the route in 40 years, and entails the largest deployment of engineering trains on the GWML since the 1970s. It will create space for overhead electric wires to be installed from next year as part of the Great Western electrification programme.

• For more on this story, see RAIL 783, published on September 16
• An in-depth feature on the work will appear in RAIL 784, published on September 30.