North West rail improvements planned this early May bank holiday

Friday 21 Apr 2023

North West rail improvements planned this early May bank holiday

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: North West

Passengers travelling on the West Coast main line and North West rail routes are being advised to check before they travel ahead of multi-million pound railway upgrades over the early May bank holiday.

Network Rail is carrying out major projects between Saturday 29 April and Monday 1 May to improve the region’s railway for passengers and freight.

The work includes:

Platform extensions at Leyland station
Track upgrades at Caldew in Cumbria
New track being installed at Euxton junction in Lancashire
Signalling work at Basford Hall in Crewe
Track foundation stone improvements in Wigan
Follow up work at Stalybridge as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 April)*
Ongoing construction of a new Merseyrail station at Headbolt Lane in Kirkby

For the work to take place some sections of the West Coast main line will be closed during Sunday 30 April or Monday 1 May, between Lancaster and Carlisle and on the Lakes line between Oxenholme and Windermere.

Passengers are being advised to see if their journey could be impacted by checking www.nationalrail.co.uk.

During the work people could have to change trains, have longer journeys, services will be busier, and in some cases travellers will need to use rail replacement buses.

Phil James, Network Rail’s North West route director, said: “We made great progress on major railway improvements over Easter and I’d like to thank passengers for their continued patience while we carry out more must-do work between Saturday 29 April and Monday 2 May. We know there is never an ideal time to shut the railway, but bank holidays continue to be the least disruptive time for us to carry out this essential maintenance.

“With sections of railway needing to close for our important work, please check National Rail Enquiries in advance to see how your journey could be impacted.”

Towards London, Euston station will be closed for improvement work to take place on Sunday 30 April.

Read more: Euston station closed on Sunday 30 April

Nationally Network Rail is investing £73m and carrying out a total of 610 railway upgrade projects over the early May bank holiday weekend.

Passengers are advised to plan ahead through their train operator or by visiting the www.nationalrail.co.uk website.

Notes to Editors

*Transpennine Route Upgrade work at Stalybridge

Network Rail is carrying out major improvement work at Stalybridge to install overhead line equipment to enable cleaner, greener electric trains to run. Engineers will be completely remodelling and simplifying the track layout and commissioning new signalling upgrades to improve capacity, assist reliability and increase the speed that trains can run at.

It will mean the following changes to trains:

TPE services

TPE will divert services between Manchester and Leeds via the Calder Valley route to keep passengers moving by train where possible.
Services between Liverpool Lime Street and Hull will only run between Huddersfield and Hull, running non-stop between Huddersfield and Leeds. Customers wanting to travel to and from Manchester and Liverpool should change at Leeds for further connections.
Services between Liverpool Lime Street and Newcastle will be diverted between Manchester Victoria and Leeds and will not call at Huddersfield. They will make an extra stop at Lea Green.
Services between Manchester Airport and Saltburn will start/finish at Manchester Victoria instead of Manchester Airport and will not call at Manchester Airport, Manchester Piccadilly or Manchester Oxford Road. They will be diverted between Manchester Victoria and Leeds and will not call at Huddersfield.
Services between Manchester Piccadilly, York and Scarborough will run between York and Scarborough only. Customers should change at York for all onward connections.
Local services between Marsden, Huddersfield and Leeds will continue to run, calling at Slaithwaite, Deighton, Mirfield, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, Batley, Morley and Cottingley.
Fast rail replacement buses will run between Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield non-stop. Customers will be able to change onto onward services at Huddersfield.
All-stations rail replacement buses will run between Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield calling at Stalybridge, Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite. Customers will be able to change onto onward services at Huddersfield.
A rail replacement bus service will run between Manchester Airport and Huddersfield calling at Stockport.

Northern services between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge will be replaced by rail replacement buses.

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
0330 854 0100
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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