Wednesday 12 Sep 2007
£75 MILLION INVESTMENT FOR SNOW HILL LINE PASSENGERS
- Region & Route:
Passengers are set to benefit as Network Rail starts the next phase of a £75 million programme to improve the railway between Birmingham Snow Hill, Solihull and Warwick this autumn. The project will see the old signalling renewed with modern state-of-the-art equipment along 23 miles of railway and improvements to the track at Tyseley. Chris Rowley, Network Rail’s Area General Manager said: “This major investment will mean a better, more reliable service for passengers while a new junction at Tyseley will relieve what has become a significant bottleneck on this route by increasing the capacity of the track as well as the speed that trains can travel. “We do have to close the railway while we undertake this major project and have been working closely with train operators to ensure that a robust timetable of replacement bus services will be put in place to minimise disruption for passengers.” To enable the project to be completed, the line will be closed and buses will replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill Station and Dorridge and Shirley. On Saturdays between 15th September and 27th October and on Sundays from 16th September to 2nd December; buses will replace trains and call at advertised stations between:
· Birmingham Snow Hill and Dorridge
· Birmingham Snow Hill and Shirley
A special shuttle train service will operate between Shirley and Stratford upon Avon.
Passengers are advised to allow more time for their journeys and are reminded that bicycles and dogs (except for assistance dogs) may not be allowed to travel on substitute bus services. More information is available online at www.centraltrains.co.uk or by telephone from National Rail enquiries on 08457 484950
To enable the project to be completed, the railway between Birmingham and Leamington and Stratford-upon-Avon will be closed from February 7 to February 18th 2008 while engineers test and switch on the new signalling equipment. Network Rail will work with train operators to ensure passengers are informed of alternative travel arrangements.
Notes to editors
The current linespeed over Tyseley junction is 20mph which slows up fast services and can cause delays. Network Rail is building two new junctions either side of Tyseley station which will increase the linespeed to 60mph. This will allow non stopping trains to pass through the station more quickly, improving journey times for Central, Chiltern and Cross Country services and improve operational flexibility for train operators by increasing the capacity of the line Once the Birmingham – Warwick project is completed in February 2008, signalling operations will transfer into Network Rail’s new West Midlands Signalling Centre in Saltley, Birmingham As part of the project, Bentley Heath signal box (near Dorridge) will close with the level crossing converted to CCTV control from the West Midlands Signalling Centre The project is part of Network Rail’s £350m investment programme to renew signalling equipment across the West Midlands over the next seven years The project is one of the first ‘Type A’ signalling projects with the project directly managed by Network Rail using a ‘Hub Model’. This enables Network Rail to reduce costs and directly manage its relationship’s with contractors
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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.
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