The days of mechanical interlocking are long gone!

The big project on the GWR at the moment about to start is the resignalling project which will be a 4-year programme costing £350 million.  It will renew a signalling system that was last upgraded in the 1960s and lay the basis for the new electrified railway. Much of the signalling system is now life expired and a projected passenger growth rate of 5% a year means that the maintenance of a safe railway makes it imperative that the network is resignalled in order to meet these extra demands.

Much of the work will be focussed on the Bristol area and will accompany extensive changes to the track layout.   As this is my local patch, I will report regularly on progress as it happens.  The other area to receive particular attention is the section that connects Reading, already undergoing massive expansion and change, and Newbury, where rail race traffic is expanding all the time.

Swindon – Kemble is being double-tracked where it was singled and signalling improvements will also complement this development between Swindon, Chippenham and Gloucester.

Read the full text of the NR press release here