Buckinghamshire locals thanked as rail route reopens after 10 weeks
The Aylesbury to Princes Risborough rail route was moved for HS2
Local Rail passengers in Buckinghamshire have been thanked for their patience, after a 10-week project to move a section of railway between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough.
As part of the work, almost 2km of track was replaced to make way for The new high-speed line HS2.
Network Rail installed:
• 2,953 concrete sleepers
• 2,000 metres of rail
• 11,000 tonnes of railway ballast (stone).
The railway between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough reopened to passengers and freight trains this morning.
The new section of track is aiming to provide smoother and more reliable journeys for Chiltern Railways' passengers. It will also allow HS2 to construct new high speed lines which will pass beneath a new 100m steel bridge which will carry the existing railway.
Patrick Cawley, director for ‘On Network Works’ for Network Rail and HS2, said: “I’d like to say a huge thanks to passengers and local people for their patience while we carried out our major improvements in Aylesbury which will pave the way for HS2, Britain’s new high-speed railway.
“As part of the project we’ve upgraded almost 2km of track in the area which will mean locally that our passengers and freight customers will also benefit from smoother and more reliable journeys.”
Tony Baxter, operations director at Chiltern Railways, said: "We'd like to offer our sincere thanks to our customers, whose patience and understanding during this ten-week line closure has enabled these vital HS2 works to take place.
"We're looking forward to welcoming customers back to our route between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury, and staff will be on site delivering cakes and vouchers for respective station cafes on Tuesday 31 October as a small gesture of our gratitude.
"We know that this has been a long period of disruption, and are pleased to be sending the rail replacement buses back to the garage and resuming our train services along the line.”