£90m boost for Reading to London rail reliability

Modernisation of the Great Western main line steams ahead

NETWORK Rail has awarded contracts worth £90m to increase capacity and improve reliability of the railway between Reading and London.

The upgrades represent a modernisation of the Great Western main line and should result in fewer delays.

A £79m contract with Alstom is for the final stage of the full re-signalling of the Great Western main line between Reading and Paddington in the west of London.

The contract covers the design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of a state-of-the-art train control system.

And an £11m contract has been awarded to Amey for signalling power works between Paddington and Hayes and Harlington, which includes the replacement of obsolete power supplies and fully resilient new supplies for the signalling equipment.

This enables the system to be automatically supplied from separate supplies in the event of a power failure anywhere between two points.

This installation is aimed at greatly reducing train delays while maximising reliability for trains on the approach to and from Paddington.