Network Rail and its contractors successfully completed a busy Easter period of engineering works across the whole country, including Olympic critical sites.
Engineers and rail staff worked on 260 projects around the clock progressing £40m of planned works at over 1,000 worksites. Maintenance teams were out in force working at an additional 2,000 worksites.
Highlights include the Thameslink Phase 3 Commissioning Works which saw the completion of work at Blackfriars with Platform 3 and 4 now ready for use ahead of the May timetable change.
Capacity enhancement work pushed ahead at Finsbury Park with bridge strengthening and track realignment designed to eliminate the bottleneck. On the North London Line, essential for the Olympics, the Easter possession saw 5 of the 6 Solid State Interlocks successfully updated at Upminster.
Work continued on Crossrail with a 94 hour possession at West Acton. In the Midlands signalling control was successfully transferred from Saltley PSB to the West Midlands Signalling Centre (WMSC) over two commissioning possessions.
The first was successfully completed in November 2011 covering the area east of Water Orton, followed by the area west of Water Orton over Easter 2012.
Track remodelling proceeded at Bletchley with the renewal of eight sets of points. New signals and structures were installed and enabling works successfully undertaken for overhead line work planned for later this year.
Two bridges were successfully reconstructed on the Salisbury – Southampton line at Ashfield, near Romsey, and New Road near East Grimstead. These are now higher and will enable wider, taller, international ISO containers to pass safely underneath en route to and from Southampton.
