OREANDA-NEWS. Over the festive period, more than 11km of new overhead lines were installed between Ilford and Shenfield to improve reliability.

Network Rail also continued to upgrade the railway between Forest Gate and Shenfield in preparation for Crossrail, which will transform services between London and Shenfield with new trains and more frequent services from 2017.

Richard Schofield, Network Rail route managing director, said: “Over the Christmas and New Year period, our orange army worked round the clock to deliver crucial parts of our Railway Upgrade Plan which will mean better, more reliable journeys for people travelling between London, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

“Our work to improve the railway doesn’t stop, and while we mostly work at night, big upgrades like the ones we’ve successfully completed this Christmas can only be carried out over a longer period of time. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding while we worked to improve their railway.”

Andrew Goodrum, Customer Service Director for Abellio Greater Anglia, said: “We are grateful to customers for their patience and understanding while these important works were carried out. The improvements will help to deliver a better and more reliable service.”

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing ?38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.