Update for passengers at southern end of Midland Main Line
Wednesday 27 Dec 2023
Update for passengers at southern end of Midland Main Line
Region & Route:
Eastern[1]
| Eastern: East Midlands[2]
Network Rail is sorry that the reduced service for passengers at the southern end of the Midland Main Line between London St Pancras and Bedford will continue for the rest of the day.
This is because of a technical problem with part of the signalling control system following essential upgrade work over Christmas. A reduced Thameslink service is running between Bedford and central London. EMR, already planned to be affected by work to electrify the Midland Main Line today, is providing road transport to Bedford for onward travel to London and asking passengers to use alternative routes.
Siemens engineers believe they have identified the fault and are designing the fix which will be installed overnight. This will enable the planned timetable to run tomorrow (Thursday 29 December). However, because of the extent of the disruption today, which means some trains aren’t in the right place, there is likely to be minor disruption until around 10.00 on Thursday.
Gary Walsh, route director for Network Rail, said “I am very sorry for the extensive disruption to passengers today. The technical problem with part of the signalling control system was not detected as part of the test programme and we are working hard with Siemens to understand why. We believe we’ve identified the problem and the fix will be installed overnight.
“We expect to run the full timetable as advertised from around 10am tomorrow. Services before 10am are likely to have some minor changes because of the extent of the disruption today. I am sorry that this continues to affect passengers journeys.”
The work over Christmas involved Siemens installing a new system to control signals on the Midland Main Line from Bedford to St Pancras.
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain’s railway infrastructure; that’s 20,000 miles of track[3], 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts[4] and the thousands of signals[5], level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK’s largest stations[6] while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country’s train operating companies[7].
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain’s railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway[8], so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan[9], to grow and expand the nation’s railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced – a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrailVisit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk[10][11]
References
- ^ Eastern (www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk)
- ^ Eastern: East Midlands (www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk)
- ^ track (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ bridges, tunnels and viaducts (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ signals (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ stations (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ train operating companies (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ a safe and reliable railway (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan (www.networkrail.co.uk)
- ^ @networkrail (twitter.com)
- ^ http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/ (www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk)