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Monday 1 Oct 2018

Biggest investment into railway in Derby since the Victorian era enters final week

Region & Route:

| Eastern

Network Rail’s £200million investment to upgrade the railway in Derby has entered its final week.

The Derby Resignalling Project will end early morning on Monday, 8 October allowing all train services to resume.

The project, which is part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade and began on Sunday, 22 July, has involved 79 days of major engineering work to upgrade the track and signalling system in and around Derby railway station. The work has removed a key bottleneck and improved line speeds through the station, providing a more efficient and reliable railway with reduced delays for the four million passengers who use the station every year.

Network Rail, East Midlands Trains and CrossCountry have worked together to keep the station open and passengers moving despite the necessary disruption, with bus replacement services in place when it is not possible to run trains.

From Monday, East Midlands Trains services between Matlock and Newark (via Derby) will resume. The full East Midlands Trains timetable between Sheffield, Derby and London St Pancras will also return, with two trains per hour in each direction serving the Midland Main Line.

Rob McIntosh, Route Managing Director at Network Rail, said: “We’re really excited to be entering into the final phase of this huge upgrade. The new station facilities, along with the smoother passage of trains through the station means passengers can look forward to a more efficient and enjoyable experience.”

Jake Kelly, Managing Director at East Midlands Trains, said: “We have worked in partnership with Network Rail and CrossCountry to make the previous 72 days as smooth as possible for customers.

“However, many have still faced significant disruption and changes to their journeys and we are very grateful for their continued patience and understanding.

“The good news is we are now in the final week of these changes. We are looking forward to reintroducing our full service on Monday, 8 October and making use of the new and improved infrastructure and providing an even better service for our customers.”

CrossCountry’s Managing Director, Andy Cooper, said: “As we near the finish line we wanted to thank our customers for their patience while this project was completed. We know the longer journeys and road replacement services won’t have been easy for everyone, which is why we worked so closely with Network Rail and East Midlands Trains to ensure we could make information on changes to peoples’ journeys during the work easily available.

“And now our focus will turn to how quickly we can make use of the benefits this work delivers, which will include faster journeys between Derby and the North East and a more reliable railway for our customers.”

ENDS