Network
Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk
NETWORK Rail has started an 18-month recovery plan from “unacceptably poor” performance on its Western route between London Paddington and Reading.
It aims to stabilise performance over six months, before then seeing reliability improve.
Since the launch of Elizabeth line services, the corridor has become the busiest stretch with overhead line power in the UK. Its falling reliability has made national headlines, with high-profile failures, and has prompted an investigation by the Rail Regulator.
“Our performance hasn’t been good enough,” Route Director Marcus Jones told RAIL.
“We have been consistently letting down customers. They cannot guarantee a service every day. That is not a position we want to be in.”
Jones joined Network Rail last summer, having previously been train service delivery director for MTR Elizabeth line.
He said: “Over the last three months, we have developed a plan. In six months, it still won’t quite be the level we want it to be, but it will be an improvement on now, while we put the sticking plasters on.
“Then we move into a 12-month phase where we start to see an improvement.”
NR says work will be required at 19 sites between Reading and Paddington, with more than 1,000 separate interventions.
It has allocated £140 million for the work, which it says will come from existing budgets.
NR has identified six areas for remedial work: track, points, overhead wires, signalling systems (mainly axle counters), operations, and external events.
It believes there is no single reason why performance has continued to fall, while it has stabilised in other regions.
But since Elizabeth line services started, track use has increased by 17% and tonnage has increased by 38%. There has also been an increase in the number of heavy stone-carrying trains on the route.
Jones added: “It is a complex set of circumstances. That includes COVID and industrial action, during which we lost work. We’ve moved from a long-distance and suburban operation to also having a metro. That magnifies the impact of any incident we have.”
NR will bring forward planned track work. Axle counters, which are essential to safe signalling, are being fitted with “industry first” monitoring equipment to pre-empt failures. “They are still failing, but they are failing less often. That is a big part of the stabilisation,” said Jones.
Further ahead, overhead wires will be replaced between Airport Junction and Paddington. The wires were installed 30 years ago for Heathrow Express services and are less robust than more recent wiring installed during the Great Western Electrification Pro
