Media centre

Thursday 8 Mar 2007

PLANNED REOPENING OF THE WEST COAST MAIN LINE FOLLOWING THE GRAYRIGG TRAGEDY

Region & Route:

National

The railway line at Grayrigg, on the main West Coast route to Scotland, is planned to be reopened on Monday 12 March following almost two weeks of intensive engineering activity. The tragic accident on Friday 23 February caused extensive damage to the railway infrastructure and the main West Coast route, north of Lancaster to Scotland, has been shut ever since. John Armitt, Chief Executive, said: "We continue to work closely with accident investigators and will leave no stone unturned as we aim to get to the truth. We will listen carefully to the results and recommendations that come out of the investigation, learn the lessons of this terrible tragedy, and make the railways even safer. "Our thoughts continue to be with the family and friends of Margaret Masson, who died as a result of the incident, and to other passengers who were injured and shaken. "Our people have been working around the clock to repair the damage and reopen the railway as quickly as possible. The line is now planned to reopen for the first service in the early morning of Monday 12 March." Over 300 engineers and dozens of pieces of plant and machinery have been on site working to get the railway reopened. The work has included:

• Building a temporary road - a steel road has been constructed using 2,500 massive steel panels to improve access to the site for people and machinery

• Rebuilding the embankment - 22,000 tonnes of stone (that used for the base of the massive recovery cranes) has been used to rebuild the embankment

• Replacing track - almost a kilometre of track will have been replaced using over 2,000 tonnes of ballast (the special stone that forms the base of all track)

• Replacing overhead power lines - five new masts will be erected. These masts hold up the overhead power lines that the trains use for power. Over 600m of power line is also being replaced

• Renewing the signalling - four local signalling control boxes have been rebuilt and almost a kilometre of new cabling installed. Thorough testing of the repaired signalling system will take most of the weekend

• Other civil engineering tasks - hundreds of metres of new drains and fences are being installed

John Armitt concluded: "We would also like to say a special thank you to the community of Grayrigg. Their support, generosity, understanding and patience has been of immense help in making today's announcement possible. Passengers and freight customers have also been very understanding as we have worked to restore normal train services." Virgin West Coast Managing Director, Charles Belcher, said: "I welcome the reopening of the West Coast Main Line following the tragic accident at Grayrigg, enabling us to restore direct Anglo-Scottish services for our customers. We now need to work hard to rebuild confidence in the railway industry."