King's Uncrossed - Introducing the East Coast Main Line Upgrade - Alistair Burt

King’s Uncrossed - Introducing the East Coast Main Line Upgrade
The East Coast Main Line is one of the UK’s main railway arteries, with King’s Cross the 10 th busiest
station in the country serving 38.5m passengers a year. With demand, upgrades and improvements
are essential. The East Coast Main Line upgrade is a £780m Network Rail investment into our route,
which will deliver:

    •   Tracks on the approach to London King’s Cross station remodeled;
    •   New terminating platform built at Stevenage for London surburban services;
    •   Dive-under constructed at Werrington, just north of Peterborough, to remove conflicts with
        freight services.

This work, when complete, will allow us to run up to 8 long distance services per hour into and out of
London, and will enable us to deliver quicker and better journeys for passengers across our route and
more direct services to London.

Of course, we recognise that these works will result in disruption for passengers, but we intend
disruption to be as minimal as possible by carrying out much of it during planned weekend closures of
the railway between 2019 and 2021. This disruption is unavoidable if we wish to bring King’s Cross
and the network into the 21st century and ensure the passenger journey continues to improve in the
long-term.

King’s Cross Remodeling Programme
The King’s Cross Remodeling Programme will involve all of the track, sub-systems and overhead line
equipment being renewed in the station ‘bottleneck’ from King’s Cross to 1.5 miles out, whilst the
approaches will also be enhanced for the first time since the 1970s, when much of the existing layout
was installed by British Rail. A large number of switches and crossings currently located close to the
platform ends will be re-sited either within the Gasworks Tunnel or in the cutting between Gasworks
Tunnel and Copenhagen Tunnel, around a mile from King’s Cross.

The following diagram shows the existing layout of King’s Cross station.

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As part of the works, the disused eastern Gasworks Tunnel will be reopened and used for rail traffic
for the first time in almost 50 years. This will reduce conflicting train movements in and out of the
station, and thus allowing the new Azuma fleet to utilise its increased acceleration.
Network Rail are transferring the entire southern East Coast Main Line signaling to the Route
Operation Centre in York. This will improve the long-term reliability of the route.

The diagram below shoes the remodeled layout of King’s Cross. On completion of the remodeling
programme, the passenger experience will be significantly enhanced – we will be able to run more
trains and more seats in and out of King’s Cross.

Stevenage and Werrington Projects

At Stevenage a new terminating platform is being constructed for London suburban services; and at
Werrington a dive-under is being installed to take freight trains away from the mainline fast tracks.

These two pieces of work will be taking place to reduce the conflict between LNER services and local
stopping-services at two major junctions on the southern part of the East Coast Main Line. This will
give our trains a clear run on the southern part of the route, allowing us to unlock quicker journeys
with our new Azuma trains.

You can find out more about The East Coast Upgrade at eastcoastupgrade.co.uk

Tunnel Tour for LNER MPs

As you will see from the above, the engineering challenge at King’s Cross is vast. We are therefore
offering our line of route MPs to attend a guided tour of the Gasworks Tunnel.

To secure your place on the tour, please contact LNER@fieldconsulting.co.uk as soon as possible.

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King’s Uncrossed - Planned Disruption

Under the current proposals agreed with Network Rail, this project is anticipated to be completed in
2021. There are two major pieces of work in 2019 which affect our services.

Saturday 13th to Sunday 14th July 2019
    o   LNER ran a limited service into Kings Cross. Some LNER services terminated at Peterborough.

Saturday 24th to Sunday 26th August 2019
    o   LNER will not be running any trains between Peterborough and King’s Cross on Saturday 24th
        and Sunday 25th August. In addition, trains will be diverted between Doncaster and
        Peterborough as Network Rail carry out further upgrade work in the Newark area.

This will cause significant disruption across our entire route and we have therefore made the decision
to issue a ‘Do Not Travel’ message to customers for this weekend.

There will be a much reduced train service to/from King’s Cross on Bank Holiday Monday 26th August
with trains being diverted between Doncaster and Newark or Peterborough as Network Rail’s work in
the Newark area continues. We will be strongly advising customers to travel Friday – northbound
evening peak ticket restrictions will be lifted, and Tuesday where they can.

2020 and 2021
Throughout 2020 and 2021 the work will continue:
    o At King’s Cross with planned platform track renewals, a pair at a time;
    o with the completion of the work at Stevenage and Peterborough (Werrington); and
    o with a 50% reduction in platform availability at King’s Cross from Christmas 2020 to March
       2021 as the bulk of the remodeling programme is carried out.

In several instances during this period, King’s Cross will again be completely closed. We will continue
to keep you updated with the latest information and planned disruption through written briefings and
information events with senior members of the LNER and Network Rail teams.

Communications
We understand these works will cause disruption for passengers across the route, so we are working
closely with Network Rail throughout the works to ensure customers are informed every step of the
way of works taking place.

In partnership with Network Rail, LNER are using a range of outlets to ensure passengers are aware of
when the works are taking place and the disruption to be expected. We are communicating this
through a wide range of channels, from our website and social media channels, to information at
stations. We are also briefing our passenger facing and social media teams so that they can provide
information to customers in real time, online and at stations.

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We are aware of a number of large events taking place across our route over the Bank Holiday
weekend. With this in mind, we have proactively contacted all event organisers and are working with
their teams to raise awareness and encourage event goers to plan their journeys in advance.

Your Constituents
It would be beneficial if you could support our communications to help us ensure customers receive
as much prior notification of the works as possible.

Information is available at LNER.co.uk/KingsCross and customers can sign up for travel alerts on our
website. Journey Planners are now up to date with the latest information regarding August 2019
disruption and can be found at nationalrail.co.uk.

We are sharing engaging infographics via our Twitter and Facebook pages. Please share this content
through your own social media channels.

Twitter - @LNER
Facebook - @LNERail

Contact Us
If you have any questions or require further information on the issues raised in this briefing paper,
please do not hesitate to contact:

Chris Penn
Stakeholder & Communications Manager
m: 07845 052150 e: Chris.Penn@lner.co.uk

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