12 day closure to help deliver £100m railway upgrade at Bromsgrove: Work ongoing during construction of Bromsgrove station

Wednesday 12 Oct 2016

12 day closure to help deliver £100m railway upgrade at Bromsgrove

Region & Route:
| North West & Central
  • The latest stage in improvements to the railway in the Bromsgrove area
  • Work will allow line between Bromsgrove and Birmingham to be electrified
  • Upgraded signalling will help make services to and from the town more reliable
  • To allow the work to be completed the line will be closed for 12 days
  • Buses will replace trains serving Bromsgrove station
  • Trains between Birmingham, Hereford, south Wales and the South West will be subject to an amended timetable

Network Rail, London Midland and CrossCountry are reminding passengers that as part of a £100m investment the railway at Bromsgrove will be closed for 12 days from Wednesday 26 October.

The scheme at Bromsgrove which forms part of the national Railway Upgrade Plan has already delivered the new Bromsgrove station. The next phase of the scheme will be to reconfigure the track, points and crossings in the area around Bromsgrove station, and bring into use the new signalling between Five Ways (Birmingham) and Ashchurch in Gloucestershire, in preparation for electrification to Bromsgrove. This will increase the number of trains serving Bromsgrove station from December 2017.

In order to achieve this the line at Bromsgrove will be closed for 12 days between Wednesday 26 October and Sunday 6 November. Throughout the closure of the line there will be alterations to services to and from Bromsgrove, Hereford and Birmingham.

Richard Dugdale, senior sponsor for Network Rail said: “This £100m investment at Bromsgrove is key to modernising the railway through the area and providing passengers with a more reliable, better railway. This is the latest programme of work in the scheme after the successful delivery of the new Bromsgrove station which began welcoming passengers in July.

“There is never a good time to close the railway for any length of time but we have looked at all options and worked with London Midland and CrossCountry to complete this work at a time which will cause least disruption to passengers.

“Our Railway Upgrade Plan is delivering significant investment into the railway network which will provide a better, more reliable railway for passengers.”

Steve Fisher, London Midland head of Regional Services said “We will do all we can to minimise the inconvenience to our passengers during this upgrade.  Electrification will mean we can add lots more trains and lots more services between Bromsgrove and Birmingham. This extra capacity will also benefit passengers  travelling to Hereford and Worcester as local rail users switch to the more frequent Bromsgrove services.” 

Ben Rule, Production Director at CrossCountry, said: “A great deal of effort has been made to deliver a plan that causes the least inconvenience to our customers travelling between the West Midlands, Wales and the South West. However, we realise this is not always possible and want to thank those customers affected for their patience while these important works take place. When completed, this will deliver extra capacity and more reliable journeys on a very important part of Britain’s railways.” 

Sajid Javid,  MP for Bromsgrove said:  “It’s important for the work at the station to be completed. This will bring in long-term benefits for residents with more reliable services. Any disruption caused by the works must be kept to a minimum."

Passengers are advised to check before they travel at www.nationalrail.co.uk for the latest information. 

For more information on the scheme go to:

http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/improvement-works/

Or contact Network Rail’s 24-hour helpline on 03457 114 141.

Notes to editors:

This press release is issued on behalf of Network Rail, London Midland and CrossCountry.

Impact:

No trains will travel through Bromsgrove station during the blockade

London Midland will run a bus replacement service between Longbridge, Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa

Hereford to Birmingham services will run at peak times via diversion between Droitwich Spa and Birmingham New Street

Snow Hill route services at Langley Green, Old Hill and Lye stations will be retimed with changes to stops

This press release is issued on behalf of Network Rail, London Midland and CrossCountry.  

London Midland’s press office can be contacted on 0121 654 1278 or at comms@londonmidland.com.

CrossCountry's press office can be contacted at 07920 277409 or communications@crosscountrytrains.co.uk

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
07740 782954
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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