Rail replacement buses from Shenfield (2022)
Due to track renewal and drainage maintenance work between Maryland and Forest Gate and other essential engineering works on the line, there will be no trains running between Shenfield and Stratford / Liverpool Street for the following matches.
Saturday 19th February 2022 - Newcastle United
Sunday 27th February 2022 - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sunday 13th March 2022 - Aston Villa
Sunday 20th March 2022 - Tottenham Hotspur (away)
Greater Anglia passengers travelling to / from Stratford should use rail replacement bus services provided between Shenfield and Newbury Park Central Line tube station.
TfL Rail passengers using intermediate stations between Shenfield and Stratford should use rail replacement bus services provided between those stations going either to Stratford or to Newbury Park Central Line tube station.
National Rail tickets to / from London will be accepted on the TfL Central Line between Newbury Park TfL Central Line tube station and Stratford / London Liverpool Street.
Network Rail commented:
“We are always working to drive down delays for our passengers and freight partners. In this case we are improving drainage in an area which has historically been prone to flood-related delays, reducing the possibility of problems in future. The upgraded drainage will also help to extend the life of the new track we are installing as part of the work. All in all, we are boosting reliability along one of the busiest stretches of line on Anglia.”
Most of these engineering works are planned a long time in advance, often before the Club’s fixtures are even released. In our discussions with the Club they always cite that it is completely out of their influence: Network Rail normally carries out much of its maintenance and upgrade work requiring line closures over weekends and public holidays to minimise the number of passengers affected. This policy has caused frustration among football supporters for years.
Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy has said there is “no point” in carrying out engineering work on dates when trains would be packed. Sir Peter believes the lifting of coronavirus restrictions could result in weekends being busier than weekdays this summer, leading to a new strategy:
“If Saturday and Sunday get really busy in the summer, well we should do engineering work some other time, shouldn’t we, if that’s going to be how people want to use the railway. There’s no point in us saying, ‘actually, we planned engineering works on a Sunday 18 weeks in advance and look at all these people who want to travel, well we don’t want to take them’.
“We should be prepared this summer and in holiday seasons to say, ‘OK, they want to come and we’ll take them, because actually that’s what the railway is there for’.”
Having engineering works taking place on weekends in June and July isn’t going to affect football supporters, given the season ends in May. In the meantime, our supporters suffer during the spring matches.
It seems as though engineering works are happening far more often than many of us remember. Due to health and safety practices it is often no longer deemed acceptable to be working on one set of tracks when adjoining ones are being used for live running. Whilst there are two pairs of tracks between Shenfield and Stratford, both are shut whilst work may relate to just one pair. When a section of track is required for maintenance and trains cannot run, it is handed over by the operators to the engineers, who take “possession” and strictly only engineering trains allowed over the stretch of line in question. Today there is a far greater emphasis on safety with increased risk evaluation, assessment and monitoring plus work briefings. These all result in extended timescales for managing engineering possessions, with the added need to avoid any over-run for fear of incurring penalties. This means that timeframes for actual working during track closures are not always maximised.