From today, Wednesday, 5th October, train services between King’s Lynn, Cambridge, and London King’s Cross will be operating according to their normal timetable.

This summer’s prolonged spell of dry weather caused the peaty ground beneath the track along Fen line the between Cambridge and King’s Lynn to contract, which affected the tracks above.

Network Rail has now completed the necessary work to realign the track. A number of speed restrictions were imposed to allow the rail service to run safely and to prevent further damage to the track, and most of those restrictions have now been removed. Their removal means that although services have now returned to their usual schedules, there may be a slight increase in some journey times.

The work was necessary as steel absorbs heat easily and the track can get up to 20 degrees hotter than the air temperature. This was particularly pronounced with this summer’s high temperatures. When steel gets hot it expands, and the rails become longer and start pushing against the pieces of track next to them. If there is no room for the rail to expand, it can buckle and Network Rail needs to close the line to fix it before trains can run again.

For more information about the latest timetables go to www.greatnorthernrail.com or www.nationalrail.co.uk

Ellie Burrows, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, said: “We have carried out repairs as quickly as possible to reinstate the usual timetable between Kings Lynn, Cambridge, and London. I want to thank passengers for their patience while we carried out this work.”

Customer Services Director for Great Northern and Thameslink Jenny Saunders said: “I’d really like to thank all our passengers between Cambridge and King’s Lynn for their patience while this work was carried out.

“This Wednesday we’ll be able to remove the hourly shuttle we’ve been running on the Fen Line and restore our direct services between King’s Lynn, Cambridge, and London.

“Services to and from King’s Lynn will no longer have to finish early each evening for engineering work and there will be an extra train every hour into London King’s Cross as a result, creating more space for our passengers.”