Media centre

Monday 19 Jun 2023

Major Trent Valley line railway upgrades over nine days in July

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: West Coast Mainline South

Rail passengers are being advised of changes to journeys over nine days in July while engineers invest millions of pounds improving future journeys on the West Coast main line through Staffordshire.

Network Rail is carrying out a programme of upgrades on the Trent Valley line between Saturday 15 and Sunday 23 July.

This involves an £8.5m investment into the railway at Colwich Junction which will see engineers:

• Install 2km of new track
• Replace 3,300 railway sleepers
• Lay 2,500 tonnes of new track foundation stone, called ballast

At the same time work will continue on a major scheme to renew the railway signalling system in the Trent Valley area*.

During the closure, engineers will also use the time when no passenger trains are running to safely remove Cross City line platform 3 at Lichfield Trent Valley station.

Long-distance trains will use alternative routes, and rail replacement buses will keep passengers on the move between stations on the Trent Valley line itself.**

With the work coinciding with some school summer holidays, people are being encouraged to plan ahead by using www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Passengers are being advised that journeys will take longer, could involve rail replacement bus services and that timetables will be different.

Dave Penney, Network Rail North West and Central region passenger director, said: “These major track and signalling improvements on the Trent Valley line will mean better, smoother and more reliable journeys for passengers and freight in future. However, complex upgrades like these mean we have no choice but to close sections of railway for old sections of track to be ripped up and replaced with new, and for new signalling equipment to be installed and tested.

“Given this work is over the summer holidays I’d urge anyone planning to travel between 15-23 July to please check National Rail Enquiries to plan their journeys. I’d also like to thank passengers in advance for their patience.”

Barry Milsom, executive director of operations and safety at Avanti West Coast, said: “While Network Rail carry out these major works, we’ll be operating an amended timetable and journeys to and from London Euston will take longer. We strongly advise customers making journeys between 15 and 30 July to plan ahead and check the Avanti West Coast website before travelling.”

Jonny Wiseman, customer experience director at West Midlands Railway, said: “Investing in new track and the upkeep of our railways will support a better travel experience, providing passengers with more efficient journeys on our services in the future.

“As a result of these works, I urge passengers to check their journeys between 15-23 July as the major upgrades will result in either longer journey times, bus replacements or alterations to services along the Trent Valley line.”

At the same time, HS2 is planning to move a huge new bridge structure into place while no trains are running on this busy section of the West Coast main line.

Scores of workers have been building the 6,500-tonne concrete bridge beside the railway over the last six months.

It will be slowly driven into place on the back of a huge transporter vehicle to become a 56m long and 19m wide bridge to carry the existing railway southeast of Lichfield Trent Valley station.

In the space created underneath, HS2 lines will then be built in the coming years and allow Britain’s new high-speed railway to pass beneath the West Coast main line in future.

When complete, HS2 which will transform journeys between London, the Midlands and the North, providing zero-carbon journeys from day one and also making space on the existing railway network for more freight and local services. 

Meanwhile, Saturday 15 July also marks the start of a six-month closure of the interchange with the Cross City line at Lichfield Trent Valley station for platform three to be demolished then entirely rebuilt.

• Read more: Temporary end of the line for Lichfield Cross City passengers

Passengers can plan their journeys in advance by visiting www.nationalrail.co.uk, or visit www.networkrail.co.uk/wcml for more information on this specific project.