Thursday 12 Mar 2020
Network Rail urges Northern customers travelling to, from and via South Yorkshire to check before travelling later this month as vital bridge upgrade continues
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
Network Rail and Northern are urging passengers planning on travelling to, from and via Barnsley, Wombwell, Elsecar, Chapeltown or Meadowhall on Saturday, 28 and Sunday, 29 March to check before they travel, as there will be changes to services whilst major work takes place to upgrade Hough Lane road bridge in Wombwell.
Network Rail engineers will be demolishing the old bridge and putting the new one in, which is stronger, wider and will be at a raised height.
In order for this work to be carried out safely, the line will be closed between Barnsley and Meadowhall. During this time, there will be bus replacement services between Barnsley and Meadowhall, via Wombwell, Elsecar and Chapeltown. This work will affect Northern services between Leeds and Nottingham, Huddersfield and Lincoln and between Leeds and Sheffield via Moorthorpe. Passengers are strongly advised to allow plenty of time for their journeys as they may take longer than usual. They should also check before they travel via National Rail Enquiries or with Northern.
Hough Lane road bridge was built in 1895 and the original bridge deck is still in place. The project to upgrade the road bridge over the railway began in November 2019 and is expected to be completed by June 2020.
Matt Rice, Route Director (North and East) for Network Rail, said: “We strongly advise passengers to check before they travel and allow extra time for their journeys, as they will need to use replacement bus services between Barnsley and Meadowhall.
“This is really important work to upgrade Hough Lane road bridge so it can continue to be used for future generations.
“The majority of this work is taking place without disrupting train services and we would like to thank people for their patience whilst this major part of the upgrade is carried out.”
Steve Hopkinson, Regional Director at Northern, said: “The weekend closure will cause some disruption for our passengers, but the long-term benefits are vitally important.
“We are working with Network Rail to keep that disruption to a minimum, but everyone travelling in the area should plan their journeys carefully.”
ENDS
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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.
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