Monday 16 Aug 2021
Passengers thanked after major Trent Valley Line railway upgrade
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central
- | North West & Central: West Coast Mainline South
Passengers are being thanked for their patience after work to improve future journeys between Rugby and Stafford.
Over the last four weekends more than a mile of new railway track has been laid as part of a £2.6m Network Rail investment.
The improved railway lines reopened today (Monday 16 August) providing smoother, faster and more reliable journeys for passengers.
More than 500 railway workers carried out the essential work over a total of 240 hours.
James Dean, Network Rail’s West Coast South route director, said: “I’d like to thank passengers for bearing with us over the last month while we carried out this essential work to improve the Trent Valley line for the future.
“The section of track between Rugby and Stafford is one of the busiest sections of mixed use passenger and freight railway line in Europe, so making sure it takes people and goods to where they need to be safely, quickly and reliably is our top priority as we build back better from the coronavirus pandemic.”
For more on how Network Rail carries out its upgrade work, visit: www.networkrail.co.uk/looking-after-the-railway/.
Meanwhile passengers are being advised to ‘look before you book’ ahead of more railway improvements over the upcoming August bank holiday weekend.
To find out which sections of the West Coast main line are impacted visit: https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/look-before-you-book-august-bank-holiday-travel-advice
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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