A NEW £40m ‘factory train’ will be used to install power cables for the electrification of rail routes between Oxfordshire and London, Bristol and South Wales.

If tradtional methods were used, the railway would be shut at weekends and bank holidays for several years while engineers installed support masts and 25,000-volt cables.

But Network Rail has commissioned German manufacturer Windhoff to assemble a factory train to carry out the work much faster.

This will carry out most of the work on weekday nights, with minimal impact on rail passengers. There are 17,000 masts to erect along the Great Western lines from London to Oxford, Newbury, Bristol and Swansea.

Stringing an electricity supply above a railway line involves creating foundations for masts to hold the wires for measuring and testing.

Robbie Burns, the former Army officer overseeing the Great Western electrification for Network Rail, said: “Firstly we’ll be able to build the electrification system reliably, to a higher quality and quicker than before.

“We will be able to operate on one line with passenger trains running in service on the adjacent line, and thus avoid closing the railway and inconveniencing passengers while we’re constructing the overhead line.”

He claims it would be “unrealistic” to start electric services between London, Reading, Didcot and Oxford in 2016 without the factory train, which is expected at least to halve the time electrification work takes.