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Wednesday 21 Mar 2018

Huge railway investment in Northamptonshire over coming weeks

Region & Route:

| Eastern

Network Rail will continue their work to upgrade the Midland Main Line in Northamptonshire with improvements taking place at five key railway structures in the county.

The work is part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade, which will see an additional line constructed between Bedford and Kettering as well as the electrification of the line to Corby in the biggest upgrade to the route since the Victorian era.

Two of the structures scheduled for work are road bridges, which need to be demolished and reconstructed to allow a safe distance for the electric wires to pass underneath them. Due to the nature of the work, these bridges will be closed to vehicles between the following dates and times:

• Finedon Road bridge will be closed from Thursday, 22 March until Friday, 28 September. Pedestrian access will be maintained throughout the work.
• Station Road bridge in Irchester will be closed from Monday, 9 April until Thursday, 22 November. Pedestrian access will be maintained via a temporary pedestrian footbridge.

During the road closures, clearly signposted diversionary routes will be in place for vehicles.

The three further significant structures being upgraded are Wellingborough and Irchester viaducts, which have no impact on vehicle or pedestrian traffic, as well as Bush Bridge, which carries a bridleway over the railway. Bush Bridge will be closed from Monday, 26 March until Monday, 18 June.

Whilst the majority of this significant package of work will have no impact on passenger services, there will be some changes to East Midlands Trains services over the weekends of 28/29 April and 2/3 June. On these weekends, a reduced service will be in place with replacement bus services between Leicester and Bedford/Luton. Any passengers travelling over these weekends are advised to check before they travel via National Rail Enquiries. 

Rob McIntosh, Route Managing Director at Network Rail, said: “We know that this work may cause some disruption to those living in the area and we are sorry for this.

“We are doing a huge amount of work to railway infrastructure on this stretch of the Midland Main Line to allow overhead wires to be installed.

“We’re investing over £1billion in this project which will help to deliver the railway of the future, one which meets the needs of the communities and economies which our railway serves."

Jake Kelly, Managing Director for East Midlands Trains, said:  “The Midland Main Line Upgrade will deliver major benefits for customers as part of the railway’s long term plan for change.

“Whilst there will be some short term pain with changes to our services over the weekends of 28/29 April and 2/3 June, this will help to deliver long term improvements for customers travelling on the Midland Main Line to London.”