Media centre

Tuesday 3 Apr 2018

Railway fully reopens after Easter upgrades are completed on time

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

The railway between London and Scotland via the West Midlands and north west has fully reopened after a number of upgrade and maintenance projects were successfully completed over Easter.

Network Rail‘s Team Orange worked round-the-clock over the bank holiday on improvements including track renewals and maintenance, electrification work and installing new signalling. 

The investment, part of Network Rail's national £118m Easter investment, will help provide passengers with a better, more reliable railway.

The work included:
- Track maintenance in the Carnforth station area

- Continued progress on the Halton Chord and Weaver Wavertree upgrades on Merseyside

- Ongoing electrification and upgrade of the railway between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley

- Track lowering in the Cheetham Hill area of Greater Manchester as part of the upgrade of the line between Manchester and Stalybridge.

Martin Frobisher, route managing director for the London North Western route at Network Rail, said: “This work was part of our ongoing Railway Upgrade Plan which will provide customers with a better railway.

"There is never a good time to carry out work that affects services but we worked closely with the train operators for it to cause the least amount of disruption.

"I would like to thank passengers for their understanding while we completed these vital upgrades.”

Passengers can plan their journeys and check before they travel on the National Rail Enquiries website at www.nationalrail.co.uk.