27.08.13
Nottingham resignalling upgrade complete
Services are running again at Nottingham station, following the completion of a £100m resignalling project.
The work included laying six miles of new track, 143 new signals, a new platform and replaced signalling to eliminate a bottleneck on the network. It will allow greater flexibility of services, helping train operators to meet rising demand.
The signalling has also been designed to be ready for electrification in five years time, reducing the disruption that upgrade would cause.
Network Rail’s area director for the East Midlands, Justin Page, said: “We really appreciate the patience of the people of the East Midlands over the past five weeks – they have been fantastic during the disruption and it’s great to see trains running through Nottingham station again. We’ve built a new layout with a modern signalling system that represents a leap forward for the railway and will improve people’s journeys.
“The next big step for us will be the completion of work on the Hub and the refurbishment of the station, which will be the culmination of £150m of rail investment in the city.”
David Horne, managing director of East Midlands Trains, said: “This is the biggest ever project that East Midlands Trains has been involved in and the positive feedback received from our customers demonstrates the real value of our years of planning with our partners Network Rail.
“We would like to thank all of our customers for their patience over the last five weeks, as well as our staff and all of the bus and coach drivers who helped us to run over 30,000 buses over the last five weeks. Our thanks also go to Network Rail and its contractors for delivering a successful project which has been completed right on time.
“Work continues on the Nottingham Hub project which will create a station that we can all be proud of and Nottingham will have transport links that will be the envy of the UK. With line speed improvements delivering faster journeys to London coming in December and electrification around the corner, this is a great step forward for our region.”
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