Passengers thanked for patience amid railway signal installation

ROYAL BOROUGH:

New signals have been installed along a five-mile stretch of railway to ‘boost reliability’ for train services between Staines to Windsor and Eton Riverside.

The work was completed following a week of engineering work by Network Rail between March 5 and March 12.

The ‘critical’ work upgraded the existing signalling infrastructure and installed foundations for 21 new signals.

Mark Killick, Network Rail Wessex route director, said: “I’d like to say thank you to our passengers and those living close to the railway while we completed this work. No matter how important, every time we close the railway it means people have to change their lives around for us and we are grateful for their patience.

“The existing signalling dates from the 1970s, so it’s harder and harder to maintain and keep operating reliably.

“This work is part of a long-term signalling improvement project which will see us upgrade the infrastructure to a new, state-of-the-art system which will offer a huge improvement in reliability for passengers.”

Signals are the traffic lights of the railway, operating as part of a wider system that controls the safe and smooth running of trains.

The work forms part of a long-term upgrade project to replace signalling dating back over 40 years.

In addition to the signalling upgrade work, engineers also completed vital repairs to brickwork on the A30 Staines bypass bridge which crosses the railway between Staines and Wraysbury station, and completed track maintenance on the railway bridge at Black Potts Ait, an island on the River Thames near

Windsor.

PETER METCALF, 35, of Mead Avenue, Slough, was banned from driving for one year, fined £120 and told to pay £119 costs for drinkdriving in Slough on January 16.

FEISAL KHAN, 40, of Diamond Road, Slough, was fined a total of £660 and told to pay £246 costs for using threatening, abusive, obscene or offensive language while upon a railway and travelling on a railway without paying a fare in Slough on September 30.

AARON MURRAY, 37, of Morrice Close, Slough, was fined £220, told to pay £3 compensation and £214 costs for travelling on a railway without paying a fare in Windsor on September 23.

REGAN SENIOR, 21, of St Georges Lane, Ascot, was fined £220, told to pay £10.20 compensation and £214 costs for travelling on a railway without paying a fare in Reading on September 6.

CAROLINE PETERS, 38, of Newport Road, Slough, was fined £250, told to pay £119 costs and £140 compensation for using threatening or abusive words or behaviour in Farnham Common on July 24, and for criminal damage in Slough on the same date.

CHRISTOPHER WALSH, 52, of Newport Road, Slough, was fined £250 and told to pay £119 costs for using threatening or abusive words or behaviour in Farnham Common on July 24.

JUSVIN AHLUWALIA, 26, of Elmwood Road, Slough, was banned from driving for 18 months, fined £300 and told to pay £119 costs for failing to provide a specimen for analysis in Maidenhead on June 14.

EMMA KINGHORN, 40, of Athlone Square, Windsor, was given a one-year conditional discharge and told to pay £107 costs for assault by beating in Windsor on October 31.

PRIANKA SINGH, 29, of Maryside, Slough, was given a one-year prison sentence for stealing a bank card in Slough on January 13; five counts of committing fraud in Slough on the same date; breaching a restraining order in Slough on January 13 and January 19; breaching a harassment order in Slough on February 22, and assault by beating in Slough on January 19.

JAMIL REHMAN, 65, of Ragstone Road, Slough, was given 10 penalty points, fined £225 and told to pay £225 costs for being in charge of a vehicle while above the alcohol limit in Slough on September 20, 2019.

SACHIN GUPTA, 38, of Tintern Close, Slough, was given a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for one year, and told to pay £897 costs for sexual assault on a female in Windsor in February 2020.

MOWASAR HASHEMI, 23, of Bracken Bank, Ascot, was given a one-year community order, told to pay £340 costs and fined £120 for drugdriving in Reading on August 30, 2019.

PALWINDER DHALIWAL, 40, of Grangewood, Wexham was banned from driving for 36 months, given a 16week prison sentence and told to pay £180 costs for drug-driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance in Woodley on January 31.

JAKUB SKIBINSKI, 21, of Lancaster Avenue, Slough, was banned from driving for 18 months, given a one-year community order and told to pay £180 costs for failing to provide a specimen for analysis in Slough on September 5.

HANNA KARBOWSKA, 51, of Cotswold Close, Slough, was given a restraining order and told to pay £330 costs for harassment without violence in Slough between September 29 2019 and November 29 2019.

MARK SAGE, 53, of Morey Drive, Slough, was given a one-year conditional discharge and told to pay £21 costs for possessing heroin, cannabis and cocaine in Slough on September 16 2019.

ANITA RATTU, 42, of The Glen, Slough, was banned from driving for one year, given a one-year community order and told to pay £180 costs for drug driving and possessing cocaine and heroin in Slough on July 1.

JIMMY MURPHY, 22, of Hollybush Lane, Iver, was given a one-year community order and told to pay £710 costs for being drunk and disorderly in public, assault by beating of a police officer and using racially aggravated words or behaviour towards another police officer in Slough on October 20.

SUKHDEV SINGH, 39, of Quaves Road, Slough, was given a one-year community order, banned from driving for two years and told to pay £95 costs for drink driving in Slough on September 17.

ARMINDER SINGH, 31, of Kendal Drive, Slough, was given a one-year community order and told to pay £710 costs for failing to do a roadside breath test and failing to provide a specimen for analysis in Slough on July 20 and for failing to surrender to custody on December 16.

ZAHID HUSSAIN, 22, of Ladbrooke Road, Slough, was given a one-year conditional discharge and told to pay £107 costs for cannabis possession in Slough on November 13.

ANTHONY MENDY, 28, of Woodford Way, Slough, was fined £220 and told to pay £117 costs for causing a nuisance or disturbance on school premises in Slough on February 28, 2020.