Christmas and New Year is the railways busiest time of the year

As the majority of people get back into the swing of their normal routine this week, I’d like you to spare a thought for those that worked over Christmas and New Year to improve the railway.

It’s the busiest time of the year for those working to improve and maintain the railway because it’s the quietest time for rail travel. While people spend time with family and friends the railway industry takes this opportunity to get as much work done as possible. The volume of work carried out this Christmas was especially impressive. A 25,000-strong workforce (from engineers and track layers to project managers and station staff) worked more than 380,000 hours to keep the railway running and deliver 330 projects across the country.

Big infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and HS2 get a lot of attention but it’s also important to remember that without constant dedication to upgrade the existing infrastructure Britain would stop moving.

That’s why CPMS was supporting OCR to renew the overhead wiring system at Forest Gate junction on the Great Eastern Main Line. And working alongside TES on the Fenchurch Street line to replace leaning structures . Over 70 staff prioritised renewing the railway over spending time with their family and friends and I’d like to thank them. I’ve worked a lot of Christmases over the years and know that it requires support and understanding from families and often young children.