Network Rail has announced that its Railway Upgrade Plan has been successfully completed, due to work from its staff over the Christmas period.

Over 20,000 members of the rail service provider's staff worked over Christmas and New Year, completing over 500 projects and finishing the company's proposed upgrades.

Its staff worked through tough weather conditions but delivered an improved railway for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of its passengers and businesses.

The program used an investment of £150 million, which was spent on building and constructing new station facilities, longer platforms, extra tracks, new junctions and more reliable equipment to provide a better overall travel service.

Speaking on the improvements, Network Rail chief executive Mike Carne said that planning was the result of the workforce being able to work against the "atrocious weather conditions and is a great example of what the Network Rail team can do".