Biggest Repair Project Paralyzes UK’s Railway

A Southern train and Gatwick Express train (l-r) pull into
Victoria Station. The company says it will challenge the strike action
in the high court (file photo) PA
A Southern train and Gatwick Express train (l-r) pull into Victoria Station. The company says it will challenge the strike action in the high court (file photo) PA
TT

Biggest Repair Project Paralyzes UK’s Railway

A Southern train and Gatwick Express train (l-r) pull into
Victoria Station. The company says it will challenge the strike action
in the high court (file photo) PA
A Southern train and Gatwick Express train (l-r) pull into Victoria Station. The company says it will challenge the strike action in the high court (file photo) PA

Britain's railway networks will witness the biggest repair project in their history, which will suspend the activity in most of the country’s train stations; only three of the 29 rail network in Britain will be functioning.

The repair workshop, which will run until January 2 in some areas, includes 260 projects in 3400 sites, according to the National Rail, reported AFP.

The repairs are expected to cost 160.4 million pounds (214 million dollars), said the association, which is responsible for overseeing passenger train operating companies.

The Guardian newspaper said that only Chiltern Railways, Merseyrail and ScotRail would be operating only on Tuesday, at a limited capacity.

A Department of Transport spokeswoman told the Guardian that train services generally do not operate on Boxing Day in England and Wales due to lack of demand, but a survey cited by the Express newspaper found that three out of 10 Britons would take to the roads on Tuesday to visit loved ones.

Speaking Monday to the Express, British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling urged the public to be forgiving about the rail closures because the maintenance work was vital to expand and improve services.

"There are a lot of people who waived their Christmas to improve the railways," he told the paper. "I just ask people not to forget them."



Ancient Egyptian Coffin Given New Life in Britain

Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
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Ancient Egyptian Coffin Given New Life in Britain

Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University

An ancient Egyptian coffin was given a new life after it has been returned to Swansea University's Egypt Center in Wales.

The artifact, believed to date from about 650 BC, is now back at the university after thousands of hours of conservation work at Cardiff University, where it was painstakingly cleaned, reconstructed and consolidated to prevent it from deteriorating further, according to BBC.

The coffin, originally made for a man called Ankhpakhered in the Greek city of Thebes, was transported back under the watchful eye of the center’s curator Dr. Ken Griffin.

Staff described the finished project as “beyond our wildest dreams.”

“The coffin was gifted to us by Aberystwyth University in 1997 but details about its history are sketchy,” Griffin said.

He added: “It actually ended up being used as a storage box at one time, with other Egyptian objects placed in it for safekeeping.”

The university’s Phil Parkes explained that the wooden coffin was covered in textile and then had a thin layer of decorated plaster over the top.

He said: “Much of that textile had become detached over time and was just hanging loose.”

Parkes added that the separate wooden head was detached and there were a couple of large pieces of wood missing, the side of the base had fallen off and it was in a very sorry condition overall.