Weekend rail problems 'for years' (BBC News)
 

Train passengers face disruption from weekend engineering work for years to come, the rail regulator says.

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I think they mean "Forever".
Paul.

That'll definitely be the case if the reports of the reduction in funding for the railways are accurate. :(

Haven't weekend engineering works been a factor on the railway since forever? I can't imagine there's many weekends go by where there's not some sort of delay someplace in Britain for track maintainence and things of that nature, and that hasn't been the case streching way back to as far as anyone remembers.

Railways are large complex things?

And they keep wearing out, because people use them :D I am amazed that NWR can do the amount of work they do with the little time available to them. Not to mention having to clear up decades of underinvestment in the track and signals.

Maybe there are greater working efficienices possible, but not if they put people at risk

There's alot of muttering going on behind the scenes about persuading NR to operate more Single Line Working rather than taking a Full Possession over the weekends. I wonder if Les or anyone else who has to work inside possessions has an opinion ?

As a Passenger Train Driver I hate SLW, but at least it would mean running a skeleton service and reducing Bustitution, which is hell and the surest way of driving customers away from the Railway.

You'd know better than I do, but would single line working be a viable option everywhere there might be engineering?

Also there might be the fact that single like working might make the engineering works run past weekend or take two weekends rather than getting it done in one?

I'm personally not sure there's really a free meal, work just has to be done.

Whilst it might not be ideal, I reckon that single line working would be better than replacement bus services. However, I'm no expert on the mainline, there may well be some reason against that I've not thought.