Media centre

Tuesday 4 Mar 2014

Rail services to resume through Chesterfield area ahead of target

Region & Route:

Rail passengers in the Sheffield and Chesterfield areas will be able to travel on their usual services from next weekend (Saturday 8 March) once engineers complete work to allow the line to re-open ahead of schedule.

Since Tuesday 18 February, trains have been disrupted with longer journey times and some cancellations after one of the two tracks near Unstone was closed. It followed the extremely wet weather which resulted in the hillside above the railway becoming unstable.

Initial estimates indicated that services would be disrupted for four to six weeks. However work on site has progressed better than expected, aided by an improvement in the weather. Network Rail will use a piece of kit called the high output ballast cleaner to carry out intensive work overnight on Friday 7 into Saturday 8 March to dig out the ground which has pushed the track up, refresh the ballast, and allow the track to reopen.

Phil Verster, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, said: “I thank passengers for their patience while we complete essential work to stabilise this hillside. It is a testament to the hard work of the team on site that we will be able to re-start a service from this Saturday.”

“The work completed so far has prioritised making the track safe so that trains can run but work to fully stabilise the hillside will continue for several months yet. Trains will run at a slightly reduced speed past the worksite but this will not significantly affect journey times.”

Engineers are confident the work to stabilise the hill side can be completed without further changes to the timetable. The track which will be treated by the high output ballast cleaner will be carefully monitored. If any follow- up work is required, Network Rail will notify customers in advance and schedule the work to minimise disruption.

CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains and Northern Rail said: “We would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding during this disruption. We have been working closely with Network Rail to get the line re-opened and are pleased this has been achieved ahead of their original estimate."