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Tuesday 11 Apr 2023

Cross City line reopens to passengers after Easter railway bridge overhaul

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: Central

The railway between Birmingham and Lichfield has reopened to passengers and freight this morning after major work to rebuild a bridge over the Cross City line this Easter.

Network Rail invested £4m removing and replacing a railway bridge which takes freight trains over the passenger lines in Sutton Coldfield.

All this was done over a four-day railway closure from Good Friday, with services running on both routes as normal from today (Tuesday 11 April).

Photographs of the ambitious project have been released showing the progress made by engineers as they raced to get the new structure in place.

The bridge replacement now means more reliability for freight services and also better journeys for passengers on the important route linking Warwickshire through Birmingham into Staffordshire.

Denise Wetton, Network Rail’s Central route director, said: “Removing and replacing this railway bridge over just four days was a hugely ambitious task and I’d like to pay tribute to the dozens of engineers involved who worked around the clock to make sure trains could run as normal from today.

“I’d also like to thank passengers for their patience while we had to close the Cross City line so we could safely and swiftly carry out these improvements. Now they are complete it means better, smoother journeys for passengers, as well as making sure goods can move across the country on the important freight route through Sutton Coldfield.”

Minimal engineering work is planned on the railway in the Midlands and Chiltern line during the upcoming early May bank holiday between Saturday 29 April and Monday 1 May.

However, other parts of the national network will have some upgrades taking place, so people planning journeys over that weekend are advised to check www.nationalrail.co.uk and plan ahead.

Meanwhile, journeys through the Midlands on CrossCountry services will continue to be impacted by work to repair a viaduct between Oxford and Didcot.

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People should check with their train operator or with National Rail Enquiries to see how the ongoing repairs are affecting long-distance travel through the Midlands towards Reading and onwards to the south coast of England.