UK: Network Rail has set out details of the Cambridge resignalling, re-lock and re-control project, and is to undertake public consultation during March on proposals for the modernisation of seven level crossings.
The C3R programme covers 200 track-km in an area between Meldreth and Elsenham in the south, Ely to the north and Thurston to the east, and involves replacing around 690 signalling assets. It includes:
- upgrading signalling control equipment at Cambridge Power Signal Box with ‘state-of-the-art’ computer workstations to improve efficiency and operational capacity;
- upgrading interlocking equipment with a computer-based system offering improved safety and reliability;
- replacement of almost 700 signalling assets;
- decommissioning Bury St Edmunds, Dullingham and Chippenham Junction mechanical signalboxes, with control relocated to Cambridge PSB;
- upgrading of telecoms and power supplies.
- upgrading level crossings to full barrier designs with obstacle detection or CCTV at Meldreth Road, Milton Fen, Waterbeach, Dimmocks Cote, Six Mile Bottom and Dullingham in Cambridgeshire, as well as at Croxton on the line to Norwich.
NR has awarded the outline design contract to Alstom, and this stage is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2021. It plans to apply for a Transport & Works Act order this year, enabling work to be begin by the early part of 2022 for completion by 2025.
‘This is an exciting time for the Cambridge area as we embark on a huge project to renew the signalling systems across a large area of the railway’, said Ellie Burrows, NR Route Director for Anglia, on February 15. ‘We’ve been working on the early stages but now would like to ask the public for their views. We’re really keen to hear from of those who live next to the railway, specifically around the level crossings which we are looking to upgrade.’
