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Major Upcoming Improvement Works: 2024 and beyond

You can find our detailed overview of upcoming key railway improvement projects below

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Short term midweek blockades

We know there’s never a good time to close the railway and that any cancellation of the daytime Monday to Friday service is likely to cause considerable disruption. However, for some improvement projects, closing the line for a week (or a bit longer for big projects) will get the essential engineering work done quickly and efficiently.

If traditional weekend working was used engineers would spend at least 50% of a weekend bringing materials and plant in and out of the work site, leaving limited time for actual improvement or repair work. There would be long term weekend and overnight line closures instead, causing significantly more inconvenience for passengers.

Here are some of the key midweek daytime engineering blockades (excluding at Bank Holidays) taking place over the next 3 months:

Blackheath Tunnel closed for essential repairs

  • When is the work taking place? Saturday 1 June to Sunday 11 August

  • What is the impact? The line will be closed between Charlton and Blackheath, disrupting Southeastern services between London Cannon Street and Dartford via Blackheath and Charlton. Travel advice is available from our National Rail Engineering page

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail will begin £10m of essential repairs to the 175-year-old Victorian-era structure. The work is needed because the one-mile-long tunnel, which opened in 1849, is prone to leaks and water damage. Over the last year, faults in the tunnel have been the cause of around 1,000 minutes of delay to Southeastern passengers. When the tunnel is repaired and water damaged infrastructure replaced passengers will benefit from fewer delays and improved reliability. Full information is available from Network Rail.

Bridge replacement near Hackney Downs

Major resilience scheme on Gloucester - Newport line

  • When is the work taking place? Monday 22 July to Friday 9 August (except 27 & 28 July)

  • What is the impact? The line will be closed between Severn Tunnel Junction and Gloucester to allow the next phase of resilience work to take place. CrossCountry and Transport for Wales services will be affected from 22 to 26 July, and from 29 July to 9 August.

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail is continuing its work to help protect the Severn Estuary line from extreme weather. Full information is available from Network Rail.

Barnes Bridge closure

  • When is the work taking place? Sunday 28 July to Friday 2 August

  • What is the impact? The line will be closed over the 129-years-old Barnes Bridge, between Barnes and Kew Bridge. Travel advice for South Western Railway customers is available from our National Rail Engineering page

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail be replacing the solid wooden blocks that support the track across the Grade II listed structure. Engineers will also be installing new baseplates, which connect the tracks to the sleepers, and renewing 1.4km of conductor rail, the electric rail that powers the trains. Full information is available from Network Rail.

HS2 preparatory work at Birmingham

  • When is the work taking place? Saturday 17 August to Monday 26 August

  • What is the impact? The line will be closed between Birmingham New Street and Coleshill Parkway. CrossCountry will be unable to run trains between these stations. Travel advice is available from our National Rail Engineering page

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: As part of ongoing work to build HS2 – Britain’s new high speed railway – work is taking place to realign the railway in the Duddeston area of Birmingham. The new track layout will make way for the construction of a new viaduct which will carry HS2 services over the existing railway and into a new station at Curzon Street in Birmingham. More information is available from CrossCountry.

Replacing Castleton Bridge over M62 motorway

  • When is the work taking place? Friday 6 September to Monday 23 September

  • What is the impact? The line will be closed between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale whilst the railway bridge over the M62 motorway at Castleton is replaced. Travel advice for Northern customers is available from our National Rail Engineering page

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail is investing more than £20m in replacing Castleton Bridge that takes trains over the M62 motorway in Castleton, near Rochdale. The railway closure is required to replace the 42 metre long, 2,000 tonne bridge. Engineers need to dismantle the old bridge and take it away on the M62. The new bridge materials will be delivered by road and built on site. More information is available from Network Rail.

Ryde Pier on Isle of Wight to close for vital maintenance

  • When is the work taking place? Friday 6 September to May 2025

  • What is the impact? The entire Island Line will close between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin between Friday 6 September and Sunday 6 October for vital maintenance. Ryde Pier will then remain closed until May 2025 while life extension work continues. Rail replacement bus services will operate as required. More information is available from our National Rail Engineering page

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail engineers will be working to repair and preserve the historic Ryde Pier structure. The pier will close to trains on Friday 6 September and is expected to reopen in early May 2025, in time for the summer holiday season. Also, during the month-long full line closure, there will be track and bridge renewals between Ryde St Johns Road and Ryde Pier Head, renovations to a historic footbridge at Brading, signalling works at Ryde and bridge repairs in Sandown. More information is available from Network Rail.

Re-railing track between Thornford and Yeovil

  • When is the work taking place? Monday 23 September to Sunday 29 September

  • What is the impact? The line will be closed for the replacement of the track, and buses will replace Great Western Railway services between Castle Cary and Weymouth. Travel advice for customers is available from our National Rail Engineering page

  • Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail will be re-railing just under a mile of track between Thornford and Yeovil Pen Mill. The existing track is over 50 years old and prone to faults that can cause disruption and delays to services and passengers. The brand-new track will make for smoother, more comfortable and reliable journeys. Full information is available from Network Rail.

All Planned Engineering Work

Details of all the planned engineering work (including other midweek work as well as at weekends and overnight) for approximately the next 12 weeks is available on our Status and Disruptions page. Use the calendar to search for the dates you want to travel.

Longer Term Projects

High Speed Two (HS2)

Once operational, HS2’s British-built bullet trains will provide zero-carbon journeys between the UK’s two largest cities, Birmingham and London, with services continuing on to Manchester, the North West and Scotland using the conventional railway network, cutting journey times.

Trains will run on the new lines at speeds of up to 225 mph. Each train will be 400 metres long and will carry up to 1,100 customers. There will be up to 14 trains per hour in each direction.

Twice the length of Crossrail, HS2 is the first new intercity railway to be built north of London in over a century. Construction of the line is well underway, with 30,000 jobs supported by the project and over 3,200 UK-based businesses helping to build it.

Comprising 140-miles of track, four new state-of-the art stations, two depots, 32 miles of tunnel, and 130 bridges, HS2 will leave a legacy of environmentally responsible travel, economic regeneration and technological innovation for generations to come.

The first HS2 services will run between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common in London between 2029 and 2033.

More details on this project are available here.

East West Rail

The communities between Cambridge and Oxford currently suffer from a lack of east-west transport options, to link their vibrant communities, universities and businesses.​​​​​​​ East West Rail is a major infrastructure project which will deliver these much-needed connections. It will bring faster journey times and lower transport costs, easing pressure on local roads.

The East West Rail line already has its first part in place following construction work between Oxford and Bicester.

Further services will be introduced in three 'Connection Stages':

Connection Stage 1: Oxford to Bletchley and Milton Keynes. The final section of track connecting Bicester and Bletchley has been laid. The project began by rebuilding the Bletchley flyover back in 2021. Since then 66 kilometres of new track has been laid. The remaining work will take place later this year including the installation of signalling, testing and the construction of Winslow station. Passenger services are due to start from 2025.

Connection Stage 2: Oxford to Bedford. This will involve an upgrade of the existing line between Bletchley and Bedford.

Connection Stage 3: Oxford to Cambridge.  Early planning is underway for the final section between Bedford and Cambridge, which will cross the East Coast Main Line.

More details on this exciting rail development can be found on the East West Rail website.

South Wales Metro

Work has started on Metro, a modern integrated public transport which will transform travel in South Wales. Construction, engineering and infrastructure work is underway to upgrade the rail network so that it’s ready for Metro.

Work involves:

  • electrifying around 170km of track

  • upgrading all the stations and signalling in the Metro network

  • building at least two new stations.

The railway lines to Aberdare, Coryton, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhymney and Treherbert are being upgraded. These lines are also known as the Core Valleys Lines and they’ll become an important part of the South Wales Metro.

Details of the disruption being caused by the transformation work can be found on the Transport for Wales website.

The majority of the work for the South Wales Metro is scheduled for completion in 2024.

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