This winter, planned weekend engineering work will take place on the Great Eastern and Southend Victoria/Southminster lines. These efforts are essential to ensure the safe operation of the railway for Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line passengers.
The mainline between Ipswich and London is a bustling railway corridor that demands regular maintenance and infrastructure renewal to maintain safe and reliable services. Additionally, this section of the railway serves as a vital freight route, transporting heavy goods and materials to and from the capital via the Felixstowe freight terminal.
Due to the high volume of traffic, both passenger and freight, the tracks and equipment experience accelerated wear and tear. Consequently, maintenance engineers require frequent access to perform necessary upkeep and ensure all railway components remain in optimal working condition.
Planned weekend engineering work on the mainline between Witham and London includes:
- Replacing worn out rail at Ilford and Harold Wood
- Carrying out repairs and improvements to the drainage at Manor Park and Seven Kings
- Carrying out track work to replace a switch and crossing at the country end of Chelmsford station as well as platform work and repairs.
- General maintenance including overhead line work, vegetation clearance, surveys and investigations of bridges culverts and other structures.
This engineering work, affecting Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line services, will take place on the following weekends:
- Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 January 2025 between Witham and London on the mainline and includes the Southend Victoria/Southminster lines
- Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 February 2025 between Witham and London
- Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 February 2025 between Shenfield and London
- Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 February between Shenfield and London
Lawrence Bowman, Network Rail's route director for Anglia said:
"Our maintenance teams are planning to carry out important repairs to the mainline to keep trains running safely.”
"This includes improvements to track drainage so that our railway is resilient to the risk of more frequent and intense rain storms which historically have caused localised flooding that can impact our ability to run reliable train services.”
Martin Beable, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “This work is very important to help maintain the safe and reliable running of the railway and make it fit for the future.”
Image credit: Network Rail
