Published on: Thursday, 28 August 2014
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Information to customers following Tuesday's engineering work overrun in the Ipswich area
We are sorry for the disruption that has affected train services as a result of engineering work overrunning in the Ipswich area on Tuesday 26 August and for the frustration and inconvenience to journeys this has caused.
Network Rail has been undertaking significant work to replace tracks and signalling in the Ipswich area to improve the operation and reliability of the railway. Engineers encountered major problems overnight on Monday when integrating the newly installed equipment into the existing 30 year-old tracks and signals that are in place. Although eight hours of contingency had been included in their work plan, the extent of the problems encountered meant that the work was not completed on time.
Network Rail has advised us that they intend to carry-out an in-depth review of the entire upgrade programme, which will limit the risk of work overrunning in future.
It is extremely important that Network Rail completes engineering works on time and we welcome their commitment to this review and we will be working closely with them to ensure that this delivers a robust outcome.
In addition, we will be undertaking our own review of Network Rail's engineering work programme to identify changes and actions that can be implemented to reduce the scope of the works going forward, and we intend to propose revisions to the programme to help significantly reduce the risk of overruns.
We fully recognise the frustration that this further incident of overrunning engineering works has caused. Working with Network Rail, we are determined that the improvement works programme going forward will be planned and delivered robustly to ensure the needs of our customers are prioritised and engineering works completed on-time.
Jamie Burles
Managing Director
Abellio Greater Anglia