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Friday 12 Sep 2003

MORE WORK ON SETTLE – CARLISLE RAILWAY LINE

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The railway line between Settle and Appleby is to receive a £3.2 million facelift at the end of September 2003 thanks to essential rail refurbishment work planned by Network Rail.  Major work at over 50 different locations - many of those sites running simultaneously - will be carried out during two five-day closures of the line, all ensuring the long-term future of this scenic route. This is in addition to the £90m spent on it in the past five years. To allow engineering work to take place, the route will be closed from Monday 29 September through to Friday 3 October between Settle and Appleby and again from Monday 6 October to Friday 10 October between Garsdale and Appleby. Unlike previous blockades, this year the route will be re-opened at weekends to enable services to run. The main element of the engineering work will be the waterproofing of Smardale Viaduct, between Kirkby Stephen and Appleby. The scheme involves the lifting of the jointed track and removal of the ballast down to the stone arches of the viaduct, which will then be covered with a waterproofing membrane.  Reinforced concrete will be laid over the membrane before the new ballast and new continuously welded rail are put down.  Both the northbound and southbound lines will be renewed. - more - S&C – 2 To ensure the closure is used to its full potential, extensive track renewals, involving the replacement of life-expired jointed track with new ballast and continuously welded rail, will also be carried out at a number of sites along the line. Doing the track replacement over uninterrupted five-day periods is far more economical than shorter closures and also enables much more track to be renewed. In total these major track renewals will require 6400yds of new continuously welded rail, 1,200 steel sleepers and 31,000 tonnes of ballast.  All materials will be delivered to the sites by engineering trains at various stages during the closure thereby reducing the impact on the local communities. Network Rail will also be taking further advantage of the line closure by completing a major bridge reconstruction at Shaw Paddock, which lies between Garsdale and Aisgill, as well as carrying out routine structural repairs to other bridges and tunnels along the line.  Further work planned includes significant drainage work at Stainforth, Mallerstang and Birkett to eliminate instances of localised flooding, tree clearance at a number of heavily wooded cuttings on the route and heavy track maintenance at selected locations to extend the life of the line until it is completely renewed.  Brian Flynn, Network Rail Schemes Manager said: “Completing several projects along the Settle to Carlisle line at the same time has many advantages for us as we rebuild the railway. It means less disruption to passengers in the long-term, while also ensuring the safety of the historic line for years to come”. - more - S&C – 3 Arriva Trains Northern has produced a temporary timetable covering the period of the work. Full details are contained in the timetable but the main points are:- Trains will only be able to run ·        Between Carlisle and Appleby (both weeks) ·        Between Leeds and Settle (in the first week) ·        Between Leeds and Garsdale (in the second week) Replacement buses will run between ·        Skipton and Carlisle calling at limited stops ·        Settle and Appleby (in the first week) calling at Horton in Ribblesdale, Ribblehead, Garsdale and Kirkby Stephen ·        Garsdale and Appleby (in the second week) calling at Kirkby Stephen Trains between Leeds and Lancaster/Morecambe are not affected by the work and will run normally throughout these two weeks. As well as in the temporary timetables and posters at stations, full details of all the train service alterations and replacement buses can be found by calling the national rail enquiry service on 08457 48 49 50 or Arriva Trains Northern customer services on 0870 602 3322; or by logging on to www.nationalrail.co.uk or http://www.arrivatrainsnorthern.co.uk/