Thursday 9 Apr 2020
Essential travel only on West Coast main line this Easter
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central
- Only essential journeys should be made over the Easter weekend
- West Coast main line upgrades include work at Bletchley, Wolverhampton and Chorley to improve services for passengers
- People who do need to use the railway should check before they travel
Passengers were today reminded to continue to only use public transport for essential journeys over Easter.
Between 10-13 April Network Rail is carrying essential upgrades to improve journeys on the West Coast main line for passengers and freight.
This includes a major junction being replaced at Euxton near Chorley, track renewal work in Wolverhampton and preparation work for the removal of a railway flyover at Bletchley.
The essential upgrades have been carefully planned to ensure vital freight can keep moving around the country and people who cannot work from home can still get to their jobs.
To help halt the spread of coronavirus, people are advised not to travel by train and, in line with Government advice, to stay at home, help protect the NHS and help save lives.
Those passengers who must make essential rail journeys over Easter are being advised to check www.nationalrail.co.uk ahead of the engineering work.
Tim Shoveller, managing director for Network Rail’s North West & Central region, said: “The schemes we are doing this Easter weekend are all must-do work. We have planned it so as to minimise disruption to freight and essential journeys. It will help to ensure the railway is at its best when Britain emerges from this coronavirus pandemic.
“Our mission-critical frontline colleagues, including railway upgrade engineers, signallers, maintenance, control room and operations staff, are Britain’s hidden heroes, helping to keep Britain connected in this time of need. And I’m proud of them.”
To prioritise freight and essential journeys, a reduced timetable is already running on the railway network.
Government guidelines are advising the public to only travel if absolutely essential.
People making such journeys should visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for the latest information.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
07740 782954
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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