Wednesday 13 May 2026
Another busy weekend of rail upgrades completed in Bedfordshire
Region & Route:
Eastern
|
Eastern: East Midlands
Network Rail engineers successfully delivered a multi-million-pound package of upgrades designed to improve the long‑term reliability and resilience of the railway in Bedfordshire.
The engineering work over 9-10 May was the second of four key weekends of work, following improvements delivered on 18-19 April.
Teams worked at several sites to deliver projects including:
300 metres of new track at St Albans for smoother, more reliable journeys
drainage upgrades at Radlett to prevent flooding, protect the railway and support safer, more reliable services
installation of switches and crossings – the sections of track allowing trains to switch between lines – at Radlett Strategic Freight Interchange
further progress on the Access for All project at Luton station, where an accessible footbridge and three lifts are being installed.
Dan Matthews, Network Rail operations director, said:
“This was another successful weekend in a series of vital upgrades to make the railway for the East Midlands more resilient and reliable. The work was completed safely and on schedule, allowing trains to resume as planned from the start of Monday services.
“We’re sorry for the disruption over the weekend and would like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding while this vital work was carried out.”
This was the second weekend of four affecting journeys between Bedford and London between April and June. Further engineering work is planned for 20-21 and 27-28 June.
Passengers are advised to continue checking journeys in advance via National Rail or their train operator.
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain’s railway infrastructure; that’s 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK’s largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country’s train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain’s railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation’s railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced – a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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