Monday 21 Nov 2005
£200 MILLION UPGRADE PROJECT TO IMPROVE TRAIN SERVICES
- Region & Route:
December will see the start of a major engineering project between Sandbach and Wilmslow to upgrade the railway infrastructure and improve train services throughout the area.
The £200 million scheme will see Network Rail engineers replacing the old and life expired signalling with a state of the art computer based interlocking system. Work will see the signal boxes at Wilmslow and Sandbach removed and control switched to the modern computerised signalling centre at Edgeley. Network Rail will also take the opportunity to carry out maintenance and renewal work on the tracks.
The new system will improve the reliability of the infrastructure in the area leading to a more reliable service for passengers.
At present, the lines between Crewe and Stockport, and Crewe and Manchester Airport are closed every Saturday until 10 December while preparatory work is carried out. From 10 December until 26 March 2006 they will be completely closed for installation and commissioning of the signalling system.
Train operators Northern Rail and Virgin Trains will be implementing a comprehensive range of measures throughout the essential work to ensure disruption to passengers is kept to a minimum. Long distance services will remain largely unaffected with trains being diverted via Stoke-on-Trent. Local services between Crewe and Stockport/Manchester Airport will be replaced by a coach/bus service.
Tom McCarthy, Programme Director for Network Rail’s West Coast project: explained “We are working very closely with both Northern Rail and Virgin Trains to ensure passengers can continue their journeys throughout this period.
“We do however recognise that this work will cause some inconvenience but can assure passengers that in the long term they will be provided with a railway that promises a safer, faster and more reliable service.”
The new signalling system has been developed by Italian company Ansaldo and is already being successfully operated in the Cheadle Hulme area.
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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