Monday 9 Jan 2006
£58 MILLION TRACK IMPROVEMENTS FOR SETTLE TO CARLISLE LINE
- Region & Route:
Rail passengers in Cumbria and North Yorkshire are set to benefit from a £58 million five-year programme of track renewals. The historic Settle to Carlisle railway line will close for nine days in May as Network Rail starts a programme of heavy investment and renewal across the entire 72 miles of the route.
Gary Openshaw, Network Rail’s area general manager for Lancashire and Cumbria explained: “This major track upgrade project will improve the performance of the railway bringing long-term benefits to passengers and freight operators.
“The demands on this line are growing, currently up to 23 trains a day are bringing coal from Scotland to power stations in the Aire and Trent valleys. These trains can have up to 21 wagons and each wagon carries 75 tonnes of coal.
“Network Rail is looking to the future of the line by carrying out this programme, ensuring the line can continue to provide a good service to passengers and freight alike.”
The work will start on Saturday 13 May and is due for completion on Sunday 21 May. Track renewal will take place at a number of sites over the entire length of the line between Carlisle and Settle during the nine days.
In total, 11,316 yards of track will be replaced together with 4,825 new sleepers of which 305 are made of steel, the remainder being concrete. The new track will be bedded into 38,500 tonnes of new ballast (the grey stone chippings the track sits on).
As well as the track work, Network Rail will take the opportunity to carry out repair work on Lunds and Ais Gill viaducts while the line is shut.
The May closure is the first of three planned for 2006, with others expected to take place in July and December. Northbound trains from Leeds will terminate at either Hellifield, Long Preston or Settle, depending on the service. Passengers will then continue their journey on express or stopping replacement buses towards Carlisle. The reverse arrangements will be available for southbound passengers.
Details of the later closures are still being worked out by Network Rail and train operator Northern. Passengers are advised to call national rail enquiries on 08457 48 49 50 or go to
www.nationalrail.co.uk nearer the time for precise details of replacement bus services.
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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