Network Rail is to carry out engineering work on the Great Eastern and Southend Victoria / Southminster lines which will disrupt services on Greater Anglia and the Elizabeth line.

The work will take place on weekends in January and February.

The mainline route between Ipswich and London is very busy.

To keep services running safely, its infrastructure needs frequent maintenance and renewal.

The route is also a busy freight line carrying goods and materials to and from London and the freight terminal at Felixstowe.

Felixstowe is the busiest intermodal port and rail freight terminal in Britain. Demand for its services is increasing with new services introduced last year.

The frequency of both passenger and heavy freight causes wear to the track and equipment. This wear happens much more quickly than on less busy sections of the railway. Maintenance workers need to be able to access the railway in order to keep the equipment in good working order.

Network Rail plans to carry out weekend engineering work on the mainline between Witham and London, including:

• replacement of worn-out rail at Ilford and Harold Wood
• repairs and improvements to the drainage at Manor Park and Seven Kings
• replacement of a switch and crossing at the country end of Chelmsford station
• platform work and repairs
• general maintenance work, including vegetation clearance, overhead line work, surveys and investigations of bridges, culverts and other structures.

Information on when the engineering work will take place, with details of replacement buses and disruption to Greater Anglia and Elizabeth line services, is available from the national rail website, Transport for London and Greater Anglia.

“Our maintenance teams are planning to carry out important repairs to the mainline to keep trains running safely.

“This includes improvements to track drainage so that our railway is resilient to the risk of more frequent and intense rain storms which historically have caused localised flooding that can impact our ability to run reliable train services.

“I’d like to thank all our passengers and customers for their patience while we carry out this weekend work on the mainline.”

Lawrence Bowman, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia