Media centre

Tuesday 2 Jan 2007

CHRISTMAS DOESN’T STOP WEST COAST MAIN LINE PROGRESS

Region & Route:

While the country sat down for its Christmas dinner and enjoyed the New Year festivities, Network Rail engineers worked through the holiday period to continue progress on major improvements to the West Coast Main Line through the Midlands.

The Christmas period was used to undertake several major bridge replacements on the Trent Valley Four Tracking project which will increase the capacity on the West Coast Main Line from 2 to four tracks between Tamworth and Armitage with Handsacre in Staffordshire. In Warwickshire, work continued to deliver a £190 million project to improve the station facilities and relieve a major bottleneck at Rugby. Engineers also removed a redundant bridge over the line south of Rugby station. With no break for New Year celebrations engineers worked solidly 24 hours a day to replace 3 bridges, remove a level crossing and relay track in 5 different locations in the Trent Valley. Over the 10 day holiday period work was completed on: · Two bridge replacements in Armitage with Handsacre. New Road bridge and the Trent and Mersey Canal bridge were replaced and new track and signalling equipment installed. · Work to realign track over Huddlesford Lane and the Coventry Canal bridge, in Huddlesford. · A bridge replacement in Whittington. Burton Road rail over road bridge was replaced and new track and signalling equipment installed. · The last level crossing between London Euston and Crewe was removed at Hademore near Tamworth and replaced with a road bridge. · At Rugby, engineers used a 1200 tonne crane to lift out the old “Birdcage” bridge south of the station on Christmas Day. The bridge, built in 1898 and disused since the 1960’s was in a poor condition and need to be removed before it presented a risk to passengers using the West Coast Main Line underneath Peter Henderson, Network Rail’s Projects & Engineering Director said: “The huge scale of work on the West Coast project over the Christmas break was quite phenomenal. The fact that it has been completed on time and on budget is a testimony to all the staff that gave up their holiday to ensure this important part of project was completed. Network Rail is committed to growing the railway and increasing capacity for future passengers and the work we are doing at Trent Valley and Rugby is vital to the growth of the West Coast Main Line.” Both projects are set to be completed by December 2008 and will increase the capacity of the West Coast Main Line through the Midlands, enabling train operators to deliver more services from the end of 2008.