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Monday 2 May 2016

Passengers in Cumbria get new tracks on time following May bank holiday work

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Passengers travelling through Oxenholme in Cumbria will have a smoother, more reliable journey following a weekend of upgrade work by Network Rail's orange army.

Engineers worked day and night on the West Coast main line at Oxenholme, where it meets the Windermere branch line, over the May bank holiday to replace life expired track and simplify the track layout to pave the way for more reliable services.

The railway reopened on time today (Monday 2 May) with trains once again travelling through the area from 11am. 

Martin Frobisher, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “A large amount of work has taken place over the bank holiday weekend to replace life expired track to improve the track layout in the area, making it easier to maintain and services more reliable for passengers.

“I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carried out this investment as part of Railway Upgrade Plan to deliver a better railway.”

Alex Hynes, managing director for Northern Rail, said: Alex Hynes, Managing Director at Northern said: “Investing in local improvements which provide network wide benefits for our customers is great news. It helps contribute to a real improvement in performance and reliability for our customers on this line of route. I’d like to thank those customers for their patience and understanding while this important maintenance work was carried out.”

Michelle Ragozzino, Virgin Trains station manager at Oxenholme, said: “We would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding, whilst Network Rail carried out this important work over the May Day bank holiday. More improvement work is scheduled, alongside the ongoing work at Oxenholme, so we advise passengers to check their journey before they travel and leave plenty of time to arrive at the station, as parking will be extremely limited. We are working closely with Network Rail to ensure alternative travel arrangements and parking spaces are in place to keep disruption to a minimum.” 

Over 11,000 members of Network Rail’s orange army worked across the country over the long weekend (30 April-2 May) to deliver vital elements of the company’s £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan, which will provide a bigger, better, and more reliable railway for passengers and businesses across Britain.

A total of £33m was invested over the May Day weekend, with the work planned to minimise disruption to passengers – when passenger numbers are typically fewer than half.  Compared with the recent Easter programme, there was significantly less disruption on major routes with the overwhelming majority of journeys unaffected.

ENDS

Notes to editors

• The Railway Upgrade Plan is Network Rail’s £40bn spending plan for Britain’s railways for the five year period up to 31 March 2019. The plan is designed to provide more capacity, relieve crowding and respond to tremendous growth the railways have seen – a doubling of passengers in the past twenty years. The plan will deliver a bigger, better railway with more trains, longer trains, faster trains with more infrastructure, more reliable infrastructure and better facilities for passengers, especially at stations