A 23-day blockade will be required next February to complete the Wherry Line resignalling scheme, which will be delivered nearly a year late.
Network Rail is replacing the semaphore signalling on the Norwich-Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft routes.
However, this should have been completed by March this year. NR said the project has been delayed because further testing and development of the signal control system was needed. The revised completion date is now February 17 2020.
The 23-day blockade will also include other planned repairs for the route, such as the replacement of a life-expired bridge at Postwick and track renewals at Buckenham, Acle and Lowestoft. Both of these projects will remove speed restrictions that have been in place for many years.
“I’m sorry that 23 days of engineering works will be difficult for passengers, but completing these large-scale projects and maintenance in one co-ordinated effort will help reduce the overall amount of disruption and deliver a safer, modern and reliable railway for many years to come,” said Network Rail’s Anglia Route Managing Director Meliha Duymaz.
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For the FULL story, read RAIL 886, published on August 28, and available digitally on Android, iPad and Kindle from August 24.
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AndrewJG8918 - 17/08/2019 17:37
Out with the old signalling and in with the new. And to bring in more Class 755s into service on the Bittern Line, East Suffolk Lines, Breckland Line, Ipswich-Peterborough/Cambridge Lines and Marks Tey-Sudbury "Gainsborough" Line.
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City Railman - 19/08/2019 08:58
What a shambles! The Wherry Lines are a simple piece of railway. I believe this is now the THIRD blockade required for this work! The Reedham - Yarmouth link was supposed to close for 6 months from last autumn - it has still not reopened, so it will have been closed for nearly a year and a half by the time it reopens. Will the railway REALLY be safer and more reliable after this work is completed? The most unreliable components are the swing-bridges, which will take far longer to fix with no local staff. Network Rail incompentence strikes again.
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