Tuesday 27 Aug 2019
Passengers benefit from more reliable railway after bank holiday investment
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central
Passengers are benefitting from a more reliable railway after major engineering work over the August bank holiday.
Sections of track were replaced on the West Coast main line - Europe’s busiest mixed-use (freight and passenger) railway line - between Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard as well as between Adlington and Cheadle Hulme in Greater Manchester.
More than £19m was invested in the North West and Central Region as part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan between Saturday 24 and Monday 26 August.
The improvements will continue to make the railway safe and reliable for passenger and freight services.
David Golding, interim route managing director, said: “I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carried out our vital Railway Upgrade Plan work over the August bank holiday. Thousands of Network Rail staff worked around the clock so services could start as normal this morning.
“Train companies and Network Rail have worked together to minimise disruption for customers by doing a lot of work over the recent bank holidays. The alternative would have been closing the line over multiple weekends throughout the summer.”
More than 2,700 railway engineers worked around the clock to improve the railway for passengers and freight customers in the North West & Central Region over the bank holiday weekend.
Nationally a total of £97m was invested as part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan.
Passengers can check and plan their journeys at www.nationalrail.co.uk.
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
07740 782954
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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