14.01.20
Balfour Beatty completes rail line electrification
Balfour Beatty, as contracted by Network Rail, has successfully completed the electrification of 77km of the Great Western Railway (GWR) line between Bristol and Cardiff.
It comes as part of a wider Greater Wester Electrification Programme from Network Rail to electrify 275km of train line between Cardiff and London.
The electrification will provide greener and more reliable journeys to one of Britain’s oldest and busiest railways, improving connections and increasing capacity.
Over 750 Balfour Beatty operatives carried out the complex project throughout the Christmas period to complete the finished product on time.
The series of works included installation of the overhead cables Cardiff Central Station, marking the completion of over 4,200 masts and booms responsible for holding the 643km of electric cabling used to power the 77km of route in this section.
To celebrate the milestone, the first electrified train running out of Cardiff Central Station on Jan 6 2020.
Mick Rayner, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty’s Rail business, said
“We are proud to have successfully delivered part of the largest modernization project on the Great Western Railway which we been working on for the past three years. Delivering this important upgrade to the Welsh rail network will provide a more sustainable way of travelling for tens of thousands of commuters”.
Mark Langman, Network Rail’s Managing Director for Wales and Western said:
“I am delighted that services can now run on electricity between Bristol and Cardiff, linking the two capital cities for the very first time via an electric railway. This is the culmination of the largest modernisation project on the Great Western railway since it was built in Victorian times, which we have been working on over the last 10 years.”
Photo: Balfour Beatty/First electric train from Cardiff to London