West of England Mayor, Dan Norris, has thanked engineers who will spend Christmas Day installing a 65-tonne footbridge at a new station in Bristol.
Network Rail say their staff will work in shifts from Christmas Eve which is this coming Sunday until the early hours of next Wednesday 27 December, delaying festivities to get the job done, with Mr Norris hailing the Christmas workers.
The installation of the new bridge over the tracks marks the latest stage in the development of a new two-platformed station on the site of the previous Ashley Hill Station which closed in 1964.
The bulk of the work to build the station - with platforms on either side of the Bristol to Gloucester line - took place between June and October of this year.
Dan Norris, Metro Mayor, said: “A huge thank you to those brilliant workers delaying their Christmas lunch to get this footbridge installed – and to everyone working over the festive season!
“It’s brilliant to see this brand-new station for Ashley Down residents beginning to take shape. The last time there was a station here, Bob Dylan and the Beatles were topping the charts!
“I’m proud of this sizeable investment from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority I lead to give the West's residents railway stations they can be proud of - all part of our radical ‘reverse Beeching’ programme to make getting from A to B in our part of the world easier than ever before.”
Funded by the Mayoral Combined Authority, ‘Ashley Down Station’ will give residents in the north of the city their own station once again after nearly 60 years.
It is scheduled to open later in 2024.
