OREANDA-NEWS. Over 9,000 members of Network Rail’s orange army will be working round-the-clock over the long weekend to deliver vital elements of the company’s Railway Upgrade Plan, which will provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers and businesses across Britain.

A total of ?30m will be invested over three days to renew track, upgrade signalling systems and help boost the capacity of the network so more trains can run in future. The work has been planned to minimise disruption, as passenger numbers typically drop by more than half during a bank holiday. The overwhelming majority of journeys will run as normal.

Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said: "Our work to build a bigger, better railway takes place round-the-clock, each and every day of the year. We’ve been careful to plan our work this bank holiday weekend to keep disruption to a minimum and it is good news for passengers that the majority of journeys will be unaffected.

“More than 9,000 men and women will be working hard this bank holiday weekend to improve the network as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan which will provide better, more reliable journeys for passengers and businesses across Britain.”

Paul Clark, operations delivery manager and a member of Network Rail’s orange army said: “We do our work at bank holidays and extended holiday periods because fewer people are travelling on the railway. It’s the best time for us to get in there – we get more time to carry out the work and it’s less disruptive to the public.

“What we’re doing will make people’s lives better in the long run. We’re upgrading the existing railway, bringing it into the twenty-first century so we’ll have more trains, more capacity and more frequent services.”

Mr Carne concluded: “Passengers have been shown themselves to be incredibly understanding while we invest heavily to improve our railway and I’d like to thank them in advance for their patience and support.”