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date 27 May 1997 source Railtrack plc type Press release
Another stage of Railtrack's Great Eastern line resignalling project was completed over the bank holiday weekend. The £220 million scheme to renew signalling equipment between London Liverpool Street and Colchester, including the line to Braintree, is progressing well with the signalling work due for completion in the autumn.
Over the weekend new signalling equipment between Hatfield Peveral and Witham, and Witham and Braintree came into operation. Liverpool Street's high-tech signalling centre now controls the line from Liverpool Street to Romford and from Harold Wood all the way to Witham. Outdated equipment has been swept away and replaced by state-of-the-art technology.
Level crossings have been updated as part of the project and new automatic barriers at Cressing and White Notley are now in use.
The remaining signalling work in the Gidea Park area and between Witham and Colchester will be completed in two phases at August bank holiday and in October.
The project will finish with major track work in the Gidea Park area in November and at Marks Tey in January/February.
Railtrack's director Michael Holden commented:
"We do apologise for the disruption that this work is causing to Sunday and bank holiday travellers but we now have less than a year to go before work is complete.
"Where the new signalling system has been installed we are seeing a much more reliable railway which is very good news for rail travellers. The new system will ultimately provide a facility for trains to be diverted quickly onto the opposite line speeding up operations when the line is blocked, for engineering work for example".
