Friday 5 Apr 2024
Passengers advised to check before they travel on Sundays in Cumbria throughout April and May
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central: North West
Network Rail is carrying out major improvement work for rail passengers in Cumbria this spring.
Throughout April and May, passengers are being advised to check before they travel on Sundays and bank holidays as the major project is carried out.
Around £2m is being invested in brand new drainage systems in Carlisle and Shap, Cumbria, to protect the railway from flooding for years to come.
In the last 15 years, flooding incidents in this area have caused 15000 minutes of train delays. This essential work will make sure the railway is much more reliable for passengers, especially as Cumbria faces more extreme wet weather conditions due to climate change.
Network Rail is using a bespoke “drain train” to refurbish existing drainage systems in the area. The train, operated by Balfour Beatty, uses a very strong hose to suck debris from the drains and remove blockages.
In total, around 3.2km of drainage will be installed, replaced or refurbished.
Engineers will also be replacing the track and upgrading the power supply to the signalling across the North of the important West Coast Main Line.*
Phil James, Network Rail’s North West route director, said: “The new drainage systems on the West Coast Main Line in Cumbria will be fantastic for our passengers and freight customers, as the work will make sure journeys are much more reliable. Cumbrians are no strangers to wet weather, but we need to make sure the railway is fit for the future as we see many more extreme wet weather events each year.
“To keep passengers on the move as much as possible, work is taking place mostly on Sundays. There will be rail replacement buses throughout the work. Please check before you travel in or through Cumbria in April and May.”
Passengers are advised to check before they travel on weekends until the end of May.
Warren Grigg, customer experience manager at Avanti West Coast, said: “While Network Rail carry out these major improvement works, there’ll be no trains between Preston and Carlisle on Sundays. As a result, some journeys north of Preston will take longer and involve a rail replacement service.
“There’ll be further changes to our services between Carlisle and Scotland on some Sundays during this time due to Network Rail undertaking work near Lockerbie and Carstairs. We’d like to thank our customers for their patience and strongly advise they plan ahead and check the Avanti West Coast website for the latest updates before travelling.”
A spokesperson for TransPennine Express said: "This important work will help build a more reliable railway for everyone and we ask for our customers’ patience while they are carried out. We also advise our customers to check before they travel. We are working closely with Network Rail to keep passengers on the move.”
Notes to Editors
*The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-use railway in Europe, serving London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Scotland work
In Scotland, Network Rail is also delivering a multi-million-pound programme of maintenance and renewal work on the West Coast Main Line on Sundays until June 3 this year. Engineers will renew track and carry out bridge works as part of the programme.
Due to the complexity of the engineering work and the heavy machinery involved, this work can’t be delivered without some short-term closures of the railway.
On most weekends, the closures affect Sunday services, however, over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, the closure extends for the entire weekend, with buses replacing trains on Monday, May 27 too.
Network Rail and climate change
Over five years from 2024 - 2029, Network Rail will invest around £2.8bn in activities and technology that will help it better cope with extreme weather and climate change, which will help deliver a more reliable and better performing railway. Examples include:
- Increased investment in looking after thousands of miles of drains, cuttings and embankments to make them more weather resilient
- Recruiting almost 400 extra drainage engineers who will increase the care and maintenance of our drainage assets to be able to better handle increased and intense rainfall
- Hundreds of key operational staff will attend Network Rail’s new ‘weather academy’ to help make them ‘amateur meteorologists’, better able to interpret forecasts and make better operation decisions such as when and where to slow trains in stormy conditions
- More than 600,000 metres of drains will be built or rebuilt, redesigned or see increased maintenance to enable our railway to cope with much heavier rainfall and reduce flooding
- Targeting over 20,000 cuttings or embankments for attention, with over 300 miles being strengthened through renewal and refurbishment and over 900 miles seeing planned maintenance
- Installing significantly more ‘smart’ movement sensors to cuttings and embankments giving early warning of any changes enabling engineers to react, hopefully before a full landslip
- Installing CCTV at high-risk flooding sites to enable better and faster response
- Introducing new technology that will help us keep services running safely in difficult conditions, such as: GUSTO – that uses topography to better predict windspeeds distinguishing valleys, trees and buildings enabling trains to run at higher speeds during stormy weather; and precise ‘real-time’ world leading rainfall forecasting, detailing weather conditions every 500m that will link with asset condition data for even better train service management
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.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk