Government has been attacked by Labour over plans to close key parts of the UK’s rail network for engineering activity over Christmas.

 

Network Rail this week revealed an extensive programme of up to 200 projects to be delivered during the festive period. This will include disruption to major infrastructure across London as well as in Cardiff and Manchester.

 

“In Opposition the Tories slammed the closure of lines over Christmas for engineering works,” commented Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald. “But now they’re in a position to do something about it they don’t seem to care. The hypocrisy is astounding.”

 

He noted that engineering works are a necessity and have to take place sometime. “But the Government must ensure we don’t see a repeat of the chaos and overruns of previous years,” he added.

 

Rail Minister Paul Maynard said: “Unfortunately major upgrades of signalling and track will cause some disruption but this Conservative Government is delivering the biggest rail modernisation programme for over a century, investing around £40Bn in our network and resulting in a better service for passengers.”

 

Two winters ago Network Rail came in for criticism after rail engineering works over ran outside King’s Cross and Paddington stations over Christmas, causing disruption for thousands of passengers as they returned to work.

 

This year Paddington is also due to see significant changes to services to allow work on Crossrail between Old Oak Common, Stockley, Hayes and Maidenhead. Crossrail activity will also result in buses replacing some Great Eastern main line services out of Liverpool Street, while work at London Bridge will disrupt Southeastern passengers.

 

Meanwhile passengers in Manchester will have to deal with bus replacement services and diversions from Oxford Road station for 10 days from 18 December as work on the Ordsall Chord project is carried out. Significant disruption will also be felt by those in the Cardiff area where new signalling and tracks are set to be brought on stream.

 

Network Rail’s managing director for England & Wales Phil Hufton said: “Work takes place all year round as part of our railway upgrade plan, but we usually carry out larger upgrades over bank holidays as this is when passenger numbers are at their lowest.”

 

A Network Rail spokesman added: “Following the difficulties of Christmas 2014 the rail industry undertook an in depth review into what happened and why, and implemented a detailed improvement plan with better and more detailed contingency plans to prevent a repetition. Since then we have had almost two years of successful delivery of huge quantities of investment work at bank holidays and we are confident that after months of careful planning we are in good shape to deliver over 200 improvement projects across the country this Christmas.”

 

(Photo: Network Rail)