Preston residents invited to drop-in event to find out more about upgrades to Preston-Blackpool line: Stanchions being put up for electrification of Preston-Manchester line

Tuesday 13 Jun 2017

Preston residents invited to drop-in event to find out more about upgrades to Preston-Blackpool line

Region & Route:
| North West & Central

Residents in Preston are invited to a drop-in event next week to find out more about work to electrify the line between Preston and Blackpool.

As part of Network Rail’s £1bn+ Great North Rail Project, work continues to complete the upgrade and electrification of the railway between Preston and Blackpool. For safety reasons some work has to be carried out at night when trains aren’t running which includes piling work to install foundations and the steel masts which will carry electric wires to power greener and quieter electric trains.

Network Rail will be working in the Preston area from Saturday to Thursday, between 11pm and 7am, until the end of July 2017.

Noel Connolly, head of programme management for Network Rail, said: “This work forms part of our Railway Upgrade Plan and will deliver better, greener and more efficient services for passengers in the north.

"I appreciate that the work could be disruptive, so I’d like to thank local residents for their patience while we carry this out. We will take all possible measures to keep disruption to an absolute minimum.”

The drop in will take place between 4 and 7pm on Monday 19 June at Ashton Methodist Church, Wellington Road, Preston PR2 1BU.

The event forms part of a number of drop-in events along the route where local residents are invited to speak to Network Rail staff who will be on hand to answer questions and provide more detail on the working being carried out.

To find out more about this work please visit our website at www.networkrail.co.uk/blackpool  

Any residents who cannot make the drop in and have any questions can call our national helpline on 03457 11 41 41.

 

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

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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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