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Monday 14 Jul 2008

CONTRACT AWARDED FOR INTERNATIONAL STATION WORKS

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Network Rail has awarded Geoffrey Osborne Ltd the contract to build a five storey car park at Birmingham International station. The contract was awarded on 20 June and the company are due to start work in September 2008.

This forms part of a £90m initiative to provide additional car parking spaces at a number of stations on the west coast main line. The project will take a year to complete and will increase the total number of spaces from 1460 to 2295 significantly enhancing capacity by 835 spaces.

David Golding, Network Rail's Route Enhancements Manager said: "More passengers are travelling by train than ever before and the demand for rail travel is set to continue to rise. We predict that a large proportion of these extra passengers will drive to the station, putting more strain on the car park. We need to increase the number of parking spaces to cater for this demand so, working with Virgin Trains, we have committed £90m to transform parking at many of the stations on the west coast main line over the next 18 months."

Measures have been put in place to ensure sufficient car parking is available during the work. A temporary car park has been negotiated by Virgin Trains with the National Exhibition Centre to provide replacement spaces for those lost during construction.

Network Rail is working with Virgin Trains to advise users of the car park about the project and the measures that are in place whilst the work is underway. More details will be available nearer the start date.