Delays down at Birmingham New Street thanks to special engineering team

Passengers travelling through Birmingham’s New Street are experiencing fewer delays thanks to a dedicated team of engineers who have reduced the number of track faults at the station by 80% over the last 12 months.

The team was brought in specifically to reduce the number of points failures on what is one of the most intensively used sections of track anywhere on the rail network.

Network Rail route managing director Dyan Crowther explains: “With more trains and passengers using the network than ever before, the tracks at New Street are incredibly busy; however passengers rightly expect services through the station to be reliable. The number of points failures on the tracks around the station were unacceptably high so we brought in a specialist team of engineers to help cut delays at the station.

“Each shift, the team completely overhaul one set of points, checking screws, fittings, installations and joints. They troubleshoot faults and keep the points in good working order to minimise the chances of a failure. There is still more work to do but we are committed to reducing delays for passengers travelling through Birmingham”

London Midland managing director Patrick Verwer recently spent a night shift with the team and commented: “It was fascinating to see the team in action and learn more about New Streetmaintenance. It’s a bit of a hidden world down there, but really amazing to see how the team find faults, or predict them and correct them to prevent failures and subsequent delays, helping us to keep our trains running. I was impressed with the team’s dedication to improving reliability of the infrastructure for our customers.”