Media centre

Wednesday 1 Apr 2026

Essential track renewal work to begin at Swinton

Region & Route:

Eastern

| Eastern: North & East

The railway either side of Swinton station in Rotherham is being renewed to maintain the safe and reliable running of train services.

Essential work will be carried out from Saturday 4 April, including nearly half a kilometre of track renewal within the 1km worksite.

This project involves replacing old sections of track and installing new foundations, using rail mounted cranes and engineering trains.

The work is being delivered by CRSA, an alliance between Network Rail and Balfour Beatty, and will include:

• laying 420 metres of rail
• replacing three sets of points, the sections of track allowing trains to switch between lines
• placing 2,500 tonnes of ballast, the stone base used for drainage and track support
• installing 650 sleepers, the beams which hold the rails in place.

Most of the preparation work – starting Saturday 4 April – will be taking place overnight and at weekends to minimise travel disruption and allow teams to access the railway when trains are not running. The main engineering work will mean changes to services on the weekends of 8-9 May and 15-16 May as follows:

CrossCountry:

• Trains will not call at Wakefield Westgate.
• Services will be retimed between Sheffield and Leeds.

Northern:

• Trains between Sheffield and Doncaster/Adwick will not call at Swinton.
• Trains between Sheffield and Hull will start/terminate at Doncaster.
• A reduced train service will operate between Moorthorpe and Leeds.
• Buses will replace trains between Sheffield and Moorthorpe/York.

Karen Duffy, Network Rail operations director, said:

“Renewing the track at Swinton is vital for maintaining a safe and reliable railway, and working at night allows our teams to do this efficiently without disrupting train timetables.

“We’re grateful for the patience of residents while we carry out these essential improvements and will do everything we can to keep disturbance to a minimum.”

A spokesperson for CrossCountry and Northern said:

“We’re working closely with Network Rail while this essential work takes place at Swinton. We’re asking customers to check before they travel during the affected weekends, as some services will be diverted, retimed or replaced by buses. We’d like to thank everyone for their patience while this vital work is carried out.”

Follow up work – also mostly taking place overnight and at weekends – is planned to be completed by Sunday 9 August.