A major railway repair project has seen a Victorian drainage culvert under the railway at Aylesbury replaced in order to support rail travel for passengers and freight into the future.

Today, (21st Aug) has seen amazing aerial footage and photographs which reveal the incredible work carried out by engineers which saw the railway by Aylesbury station up in order to replace the drainage system which connects to a canal basin nearby.

Earlier this year, faults were discovered in the Victorian culvert and monitoring equipment was put in place in order to ascertain whether it was safe for rail services to cross the structure, which led to a number of short-notice closures leading to disruption for passengers. The complex project saw repeated use of the locks on the Grand Union Canal through periods of heavy rain in order to control the water entering the culvert. Despite this, closures of the railway did indeed take place due to water filling the culvert, which meant that the vital monitoring equipment was obscured.

The work has seen Network Rail permanently replace the brick culvert using a modern equivalent, a new pre-cast concrete culvert which can easily copy with water flowing through it, whilst offering a stable structure for trains to run over.

The project saw a 12-day closure of the railway with Network Rail and contractor Murphy completing the following work:

• Removal of track and the old brick-built drainage culvert
• Installation of a new 18-section pre-cast concrete culvert using a 300-tonne crane
• Replacement of 700 metres of rail and 85 sleepers
• Upgrade of three sets of points

Saturday the 19th of August saw the railway reopen for passenger services between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and Amersham.

The major culvert repair marks just one of two huge upgrade programmes taking place in Aylesbury over the summer as work on HS2 continues and will see the high-speed railway pass beneath the current railway between Aylesbury and Little Kimble stations. The work taking place for HS2 will see rail replacement buses continue to replace Chiltern Railways trains until Sunday the 29th of October between:

• Princes Risborough / Monks Risborough / Little Kimble / Aylesbury

At present, some rail replacement bus details are awaiting finalisation with some changes to those currently available for online journey planners. Due to these possible changes, passengers are advised to check their travel plans close to the date of travel by clicking here.

Further to the closures due to HS2, Marsh Lane level crossing has now been closed to road users and will be out of action until spring next year. This major improvement project will see the level crossing upgraded during 2024 to meet modern safety standards.

Patrick Cawley, director of ‘On Network Works’ for Network Rail and HS2, said:

“I know our work in Aylesbury has and continues to be extremely disruptive for passengers and I’d like to apologise for this and thank people for their patience while we completed vital repairs, which will help to make journeys more reliable.”

“Our second phase of work is now underway to prepare for HS2, Britain’s new high-speed railway and I’d urge passengers travelling between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough stations to continue to plan their journeys in advance by visiting www.chilternrailways.co.uk/pra.”

Richard Allan, Chiltern Railways managing director, said:

“We are pleased that a permanent fix has now been completed to the culvert at Aylesbury, which has caused disruption to our services since January. We would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while this essential work has taken place. Customers should be aware that the railway between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough will be closed for a further ten weeks as the track is realigned to enable the HS2 high-speed railway to pass beneath it. Rail replacement buses will be in operation during this time, and customers should check before they travel.”

Further information regarding work in the Aylesbury area can be found here.