OREANDA-NEWS. While the majority of Britain was tucking into a Christmas dinner, more than 200 engineers were out in force working to improve the layout of the track on the approach to Banbury station to help provide a more reliable service to passengers.

The work is part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan and also includes new, modern and more reliable signalling in the area and a new depot to be used by Chiltern Railways. The ?76m project will be completed by August 2016 and will improve the reliability and flexibility of trains running through the area.

Liam Sumpter, area director for Network Rail, said: “This work was carefully planned and safely delivered to cause no disruption to passengers, taking place on Christmas Day and Boxing Day when no trains would have run.

“Our Railway Upgrade Plan is consistently delivering improvements and this Christmas has been no different with thousands of the orange army working around the network to maintain and upgrade the railway to meet the demands of the millions of passengers who travel by train every day.”   

Looking ahead to 2016, a nine-day closure of the railway in the Banbury area is planned to take place next summer, the dates of which will be finalised in the New Year. This will allow Network Rail to complete the work and bring the upgraded and improved railway into use.

Network Rail and Chiltern Railways will be providing passengers with detailed information and travel advice in the build-up to the work, including meet the manager sessions at locations which will confirmed as soon as possible.

Liam Sumpter added: “The nine-day closure this summer is essential to bring all of the work together and into use. We continue to work closely with Chiltern Railways to plan for the work and will be providing information and advice in the coming months.”

Graham Cross, business development director at Chiltern Railways, explained: “This investment is essential in ensuring that we can continue to provide the best possible service for our customers with improved infrastructure in the area. We will be providing dates about the closure to our customers in the new year and we’d like to thank Network Rail engineers for all their hard work over this festive period.”  

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing ?38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.