Passengers benefitting after investment and upgrades across the network during festive period

Tuesday 3 Jan 2017

Passengers benefitting after investment and upgrades across the network during festive period

Region & Route:: | North West & Central

Passengers returning to work today (3 January) are benefitting from a more reliable and safe railway after a programme of investment and upgrades across the network over Christmas and the New Year.

On the route from London Euston to Carlisle via the West Midlands and north west, more than £22m was invested to upgrade track, install new footbridges and replace railway bridges as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan.

Over 3,700 members of the orange army worked over 136,000 hours to help provide a bigger, better and more reliable railway to help meet the increasing demand for passenger and freight journeys by rail.

The West Coast main (WCML) line is the busiest mixed use railway in Europe and the Christmas period, traditionally one of the quieter times on the railway, was utilised to carry out upgrades and maintenance work and was planned to cause the least disruption to the fewest number of people.

Upgrades completed included:

Extensive track renewal and upgrades between London Euston and Watford Junction including work near Acton, Willesden and Wembley Central
A new station footbridge at Kenton station
Improved overhead lines at Wolverton, near Milton Keynes
Two bridges carrying the WCML replaced in Warwickshire
Track renewal at Birmingham New Street
Major work in Manchester as part of the Ordsall Chord programme to link Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly for the first time
Track renewed south of Carlisle station

Martin Frobisher, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “Upgrades took place up and down the West Coast main line and across the West Midlands and north west as part of the Railway Upgrade Plan to build a better, more reliable railway. This work was part of our commitment to provide customers with a better railway and I would like to thank passengers for their patience while we completed these vital upgrades.”

Passengers can check and plan any journey 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
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.