The East Coast Main Line is joining the West Coast Main Line as it closes in sections over the Bank Holiday weekend as key engineering work continues on the billion pound East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP).
The work is partly scheduled to take place from late evening Saturday 26 to Monday 28 August 2023, and will focus on a stretch of line between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin in Hertfordshire, in preparation for digital signalling to be used from 2025.
Peterborough’s power signal box will also be closing on the evening of Friday 25 August, moving local signalling control up to York’s modern rail operating centre. This will allow trains to move more efficiently across junctions and therefore reduce delays.
Ricky Barsby, Network Rail’s Head of Access and Integration for ECDP, said: “We’re encouraging passengers to check before they travel over the August Bank Holiday weekend so that their journeys run as smoothly as possible. The work we are delivering for the East Coast Digital Programme is imperative in allowing for improved, more reliable journeys for our passengers in the future.
Digital signalling, using the European Train Control System (ETCS) is already in use in many countries in Europe and elsewhere. The East Coast Digital Programme will see the first introduction of ETCS to an intercity mainline in Great Britain, and will provide the foundation for the future expansion of digital signalling across the network. ETCS is currently in use in the central London section of Thameslink and on the Cambrian Line in Wales.
The ECDP is part of the wider East Coast Upgrade and is adding digital signalling to the line in stages. Currently, work on installing the signalling is continuing from London King’s Cross to Grantham.
It is anticipated that the first trains to operate using the ECDP system will be running in 2025.
Ricky Barsby, Network Rail’s head of access and integration for ECDP, said: “We’re encouraging passengers to check before they travel over the August Bank Holiday weekend so that their journeys run as smoothly as possible. The work we are delivering for the East Coast Digital Programme is imperative in allowing for improved, more reliable journeys for our passengers in the future.
Jenny Saunders, Thameslink and Great Northern Customer Services Director, said: “The work Network Rail is carrying out over the August Bank Holiday weekend is essential to delivering more reliable journeys for our Great Northern and Thameslink customers.”
Photo Credit: Network Rail
