NETWORK Rail has apologised to York residents who were woken in the early hours of this morning by noisy engineering work without any prior warning.

People living in the Holgate Bridge area, such as Cambridge Street and Lowther Terrace, complained that the disturbance happened on the hottest night of the year, when many had their windows open.

One local resident, Professor Ewan Anderson, said: "I got woken up by a terrible noise, which sounded as if a train was coming into the bedroom.

"All we are asking is that Network Rail give us some warning when they want to do this on the hottest night of the year."

Another resident said: "There was no advanced warning, no apology, just the most awful racket for two hours."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "We are very sorry for the noise which disturbed residents last night.

"Unfortunately, we didn't issue an advance notice of the noisy works to people who live near to the railway. Our usual standard is to do this.

"We apologise this standard was not met and will make sure residents are given advance notice in the future."

He said the works had been fairly routine maintenance, involving a train that vibrated the ballast stones which support the track, removing any voids and gaps, and pressing the rails down.

"There’s no more works of this kind planned before the end of August, but routine maintenance happens throughout the year, that may not be quite as loud," he said.

A video illustrating the noise caused by the works, filmed by a resident, can be seen at http://youtu.be/TRepavWa3BA