NR report hails success of Christmas engineering work

Network Rail has commended its latest Christmas and New Year engineering period as a great success, after recording just 17 ‘service-impacting overruns’ from almost 2,000 planned possessions between December 24 2021 and January 4.

According to NR, more than £113 million worth of enhancement, maintenance and renewals work was completed at more than 4,500 worksites across the network.

Of these sites, a total of 77 were deemed to be RED sites, meaning that they carried a greater risk of possession overrun.

Highlights picked out in an engineering overview document distributed by NR in mid-January included the commissioning of a major upgrade to the track layout, signalling and overhead line equipment in the vicinity of Leeds station.

As a core component of NR’s TransPennine Route Upgrade, completion of the £161 million upgrade of rail infrastructure and the station itself was marked by a visit from new Rail Minister Wendy Morton on January 4 (RAIL 948).

Other highlights included the commissioning of axle counters on the Great Western Main Line between Paddington and Stockley and the renewal of Spital Ladder (crossovers) to the north of Peterborough station.

Uddingston Junction near Glasgow was also renewed using new Unistar HR point machines, while bridge renewals or replacements were completed at nine locations across England and Wales.

NR says the total number of possession overrun delay minutes was 899 minutes - considerably fewer than for the equivalent period in recent years.

To read the full story, see RAIL 949