Published on: Friday, 12 May 2017
Last updated: Friday, 12 May 2017
Rail passengers in south Essex are advised to check before they travel as mid-week engineering works are due to start on the Southend Victoria line later this month.
The work is part of a major project being undertaken by Network Rail to replace overhead wires on the line between Southend Victoria and Shenfield, with some work taking place overnight on Mondays to Thursdays from Monday 22 May to mid-December.
The work will help to improve reliability and to prevent delays and cancellations caused by old-style overhead line equipment. Current lines are susceptible to sagging in hot weather, leading to speed restrictions. They are also at greater risk of overhead line damage which can cause long delays.
The line will be closed to trains from 22.15. Late evening Greater Anglia services on the line will be affected, with some services replaced by buses.
The last through trains will be the 21.35 Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria and the 21.30 Southend Victoria to Liverpool Street services.
From 22.15, rail replacement services will operate between Shenfield and Wickford.
The 00.15 and 00.50 Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria services will be cancelled, but customers can catch the 00.18 and 00.46 (retimed to 00.50) Liverpool Street to Colchester services as far as Shenfield, where they can transfer to a rail replacement bus service.
The 23.00 Southend Victoria to Liverpool Street service will operate as a rail replacement service from Wickford to Liverpool Street.
The 22.56 Southminster to Liverpool Street will be retimed to depart at 23.16 and will run as rail replacement from Wickford to Liverpool Street.
The work has been planned so that train services will run as normal when West Ham play at home and during the World Athletics Championships.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia Managing Director, said: “We are sorry that our customers will be inconvenienced while Network Rail completes this engineering work. Ultimately it should make services on the Southend line more reliable because the overhead wires will be more weather-resistant and so Network Rail should not need to introduce speed restrictions in hot weather.
“While the engineering work is going on, we will make sure that our customers are still able to complete their journeys, even if part of it is by bus.”
Customers should check before they travel on www.greateranglia.co.uk or the Greater Anglia app.