IT goes without saying that travelling by train into Liverpool Street on Sundays is a bit hit and miss.

For years, Sunday has been "engineering works" day. Makes sense. With no commuters and fewer "leisure" passengers than any other day of the week, Network Rail - and its predecessors Railtrack and British Rail - embraced Sunday as the day to get things done.

Now, though, Saturdays are getting in on the act. Since the beginning of September there have been three weekends when passengers have had to travel part of the journey by bus on both days.

On one Saturday, the entire network between Colchester and Liverpool Street was closed in both directions - and as Network Rail is planning a great many improvements in this neck of the woods, could Saturday become the new Sunday?

Kate Snowden thinks not. Ms Snowden, media relations manager with Network Rail - which is responsible for all UK track and signalling - said this month looked clear.

"Network Rail tries to complete engineering works during the least disruptive times and that normally means at weekends or bank holidays when fewer people travel," she explained. "But mostly these are Sundays rather than Saturdays."

Both Network Rail and One - which runs trains from Liverpool Street into Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire - understand the frustration felt by passengers when they see the "replacement bus service" sign.

"We are in the business of running trains so we don't like to see our passengers' journeys disrupted," declared Peter Meades, One's public affairs manager. "But the rail network must not only be repaired, it must be upgraded, too. We work closely with Network Rail to ensure the public know when track closures will affect their journeys."

Fair enough. But why should passengers have to pay the same price for their tickets - especially when replacement buses add upwards of 40 minutes to the journey time from Colchester to London?

"We have still got our overheads to take into account," explained Mr Meades, "but One is trying to make the situation more palatable by continuing to offer cheaper tickets while the replacement bus service is in operation. Most important, we are ensuring passengers receive up-to-the-minute information on timetable changes and engineering works."

Mr Meades said more and more people were now travelling by train. One now has more than two million passengers a week and handles 105 million passenger journeys out of Liverpool Street a year. Punctuality is getting better, too. One has just released the report on performance targets which reveal that, for the seventh successive period, more than 90 per cent of trains were on time in the four weeks up to September 15.

Punctuality, though, depends on a sophisticated, safe infrastructure, which is where the Catch 22 comes in. To ensure signalling, overhead cables and tracks are how they should be, the network needs to close or slow down. This affects punctuality.

"When Network Rail closes the line for a specific task, we make use of that time to carry out other work, too," pointed out Ms Snowden. "We work with One to try to keep disruption and late-running trains to a minimum."

But not over Christmas and the New Year. Liverpool Street station will be closed from December 23 to January 1 while engineers replace a new bridge. This is part of the extension to the East London line which will cross Liverpool Street.

"Some days we will only be running trains to Ingatestone so Network Rail can carry out overhead power line upgrades from Ingatestone into Liverpool Street," said Mr Meades, "but passengers will be able to get to Stratford on December 27 and 28."

And from there to Liverpool Street by the ubiquitous replacement bus service.

l Friday's Gazette: Crossrail - a route for the 21st century?


WHAT'S GOING ON?
MORE than £200 million is being invested by Network Rail over the next two years in the Anglia region.

Work has now begun on a £92 million re-signalling project between Marks Tey and Colchester and on the branch lines to Clacton and Walton to replace that signalling equipment which dates back to the 1960s. This is one of the reasons why engineering work took place on Saturdays in September.

This project involves:

  • More than 33 miles of track re-signalled A platform extension at Hythe Station (funded by Essex County Council)
  • Eight level-crossings upgraded
  • 14 sets of points replaced
  • Platform at Clacton Station extended to accommodate longer trains
  • New signalling between Marks Tey and Colchester allowing trains to run in both directions on either track.

For timetable and engineering work updates ring One's Norwich-based call centre on 0845 600 7245.