I T is 11pm on a wild windy night in the Cotswolds but instead of being tucked up in bed, I am standing on a bridge carrying a muddy lane over a railway line.

Spotlights on a diesel locomotive and an excavator glow below me as engineers prepare for another night’s work reinstating the double track on the Cotswold Line between Worcester and Oxford, as part of a £67 million improvement scheme.

Stretching away into the dark behind the locomotive are wagons laden with 1,344 concrete sleepers, which will be unloaded and placed, seven at a time, on half-a-mile of the stone-covered trackbed within three hours.

This is Dorn cutting, near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, almost half way between Worcester and Oxford.

A mile or so north, stone chippings are being unloaded and spread to form a base for the new track. At Moreton-in-Marsh, another team is inspecting track that was fixed together using a machine the previous night, tightening the clips holding the rails to the sleepers if necessary.

We descend into the cutting to watch the sleepers being lifted from the train and positioned, using a hydraulic attachment on the excavator’s arm, which spreads out to drop the sleepers at the correct spacing, ready for a team moving up behind to fit the rails.

Lee Moyle, the site manager for tracklaying contractor AmeyColas, is proud of the progress being made, with a competitive spirit among the gangs carrying out different tasks, all aiming to complete half-a-mile of work per night.

He said: “We have a dedicated team on this project who know exactly what to do, day by day.

“We leave the machines parked along the line, so they are in the right place ready for work every night and a setting-out gang works through the day to place markers for the night team.”

The work is taking place overnight to mininise disruption for passengers.

David Northey, Network Rail project manager, said: “The process is like a conveyor belt, a series of different tasks taking place step-bystep.

We’re using quite simple methods without much mechanisation.”

However, this approach has not hindered progress, with work running ahead of schedule and on budget.

Mr Northey added: “They’re doing exceptionally well, especially as there’s a very tight window every night with perhaps five hours’ actual work in an eighthour possession due to preparation, bringing in the supply trains and clearing up to make the line ready for the morning passenger trains.” The engineering teams will keep working west for the next two months and are due to reach the end of the new 16-mile double-track section, just west of Evesham, by mid-April, when they will head to Oxfordshire to finish four miles of new track in time for it to open to trains in June.

The Moreton-in-Marsh to Evesham section will be commissioned in late August after a two-week closure to trains to allow the engineers to complete track and signal work.

The main aim of the redoubling project is to improve punctuality and reliability on the route, which now has many more services than in 1971, when it was decided to remove much of the double track to save money.

Train operator First Great Western plans to run several extra trains between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh from September, once the track work is finished, but is currently only planning one extra off-peak train each way linking Worcester with Oxford and London, despite longstanding calls for an hourly offpeak service.

Factfile

􀁥 40 miles of steel rails are being delivered in sections up to 220m (720ft) long. They are welded together on site to make up the 20 miles of new track.

􀁥 35,000 concrete sleepers will be laid.

􀁥 1,500 tonnes of stone chippings are delivered each night.

􀁥 5,000 Roman snails, which are a protected species, have been moved from the area around Charlbury station in Oxfordshire to make way for the new track, station platform and footbridge.