📋 Tender Overview
The Railway Has Reopened Between Tunbridge Wells And Hastings, And Between Bexhill-On-Sea And Hastings Following The Completion Of A Ps9 Million Programme Of Essential Improvement Works. Passengers Using The Railway Between Tunbridge Wells And Hastings And Between Bexhill And Hastings Have Been Thanked For Their Patience While The Work Took Place Between Saturday 25 October And Sunday 2 November 2025. Engineers Used The Time To Deliver A Wide Range Of Essential Upgrades To Improve The Safety And Performance Of The Railway. Over The Nine Day Period, 25 Projects Were Undertaken At Five Sites, Including At Etchingham Where 1Km Of New Rail Was Laid, Along With 1,176 Low Carbon Sleepers And Thousands Of Tonnes Of New Ballast To Give Passengers A Smoother Ride. Nine Bridge Inspections Were Undertaken Across The Closed Lines To Ensure Structures Are Safe And Reliable, While On The Approaches To The Mountfield Tunnel 1,000 Square Metre Of Cutting Has Been Strengthened With 337 Soil Nails, Mesh And Anti-Erosion Matting, Work Which Has Stabilised The Cutting And Which Will Stop Debris And Soil From Reaching The Tracks. At West St Leonards Station, The Footbridge Which Has Been Carrying Passengers Across The Track Since The 1870S, Has Been Resurfaced, With The Metal Treated And Repainted. In The Bo Peep And Hastings Tunnels, Contractors Sprayed Nearly 1,000 Cubic Metres Of Tunnel With Concrete To Strengthen And Waterproof The 1850S-Built Structures. In An Emergency Intervention Elsewhere On The Railway Next To The River Brede, Engineers Stopped A Landslip And Lifted Speed Restrictions After Installing 236 12-Metre Long Soil Nails Which Have Been Used To Strengthen A 34-Metre Section Of Embankment. Half A Kilometre Of Temporary Road Was Also Built To Access The Site. Bob Coulson, Infrastructure Director For The South Eastern Railway, Said: We Would Like To Thank Customers For Their Patience While We Carried Out This Essential Work During The Half-Term In Sussex To Help Deliver Better Journeys. The Closure Was A Continuation Of The Significant Investment We Have Made In The Hastings Line Over Recent Years To Address Challenges That Go Back To The LineS Construction Over 170 Years Ago. Our Integrated Railway Meant That We Could Also Use The Opportunity To Carry Out Further Improvements To Minimise Future Disruption, And By Doing It Over Consecutive Days It Was More Efficient And Less Disruptive. SouthernS Customer Service Director Jenny Saunders Said: The Line Between Eastbourne And Ashford Provides Important Connectivity For The Towns Along Its Route, And These Works Will Help Ensure The Infrastructure Stays Reliable For Years To Come. ID Like To Thank Our Passengers For Their Patience While Our Colleagues At Network Rail Were Hard At Work On The Line. Passengers / Community Members Network Rail National Helpline 03457 11 41 41 Latest Travel Advice Please Journalists Paul Prentice Communications Manager 07354 529345 We Own, Operate And Develop BritainS Railway Infrastructure; ThatS 20,000 Miles Of , 30,000 And The Thousands Of , Level Crossings And Stations. We Run 20 Of The UkS Largest While All The Others, Over 2,500, Are Run By The CountryS . Usually, There Are Almost Five Million Journeys Made In The Uk And Over 600 Freight Trains Run On The Network. People Depend On BritainS Railway For Their Daily Commute, To Visit Friends And Loved Ones And To Get Them Home Safe Every Day. Our Role Is To Deliver , So We Carefully Manage And Deliver Thousands Of Projects Every Year That Form Part Of The , To Grow And Expand The NationS Railway Network To Respond To The Tremendous Growth And Demand The Railway Has Experienced - A Doubling Of Passenger Journeys Over The Past 20 Years. Follow Us On Twitter: Visit Our Online Newsroom:
