Media centre

Tuesday 29 Aug 2017

Railway reopens after bank holiday upgrades are completed on time

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Passengers are benefiting from a better, more reliable railway after a number of significant upgrades over the bank holiday weekend were successfully completed on time.

As part of the Railway Upgrade Plan, Network Rail‘s orange army worked round-the-clock over the August bank holiday to upgrade and improve the existing railway and prepare for future rail travel in Britain.

At London Euston, engineers rerouted a major power supply to the station on behalf of HS2 Ltd - an early step towards building Britain’s new high speed railway.

During the closure, Network Rail also took the opportunity to carry out extensive track and drainage work on sections of the West Coast main line, one of the most intensely used pieces of railway in Europe. Planning work to take place at different locations at the same time means there’s less disruption to passengers in the long term.

Work on the West Coast main line included:

- Track renewal between Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted

- Track renewal near Watford

- Track drainage improvements at Primrose Hill in north London

- Extensive ballast tamping (repacking and firming up of the foundation of the railway) at Bletchley

James Dean, director of asset management for the London North Western route at Network Rail, said: "I would like to thank passengers for their understanding over this August bank holiday whilst work took place at Euston station and elsewhere across the network. The upgrade, maintenance and renewal work forms part of our ongoing Railway Upgrade Plan which is providing 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.”

London Midland's head of West Coast services, Steve Helfet, said: "We are so grateful to all our customers who heeded the message not to travel on Saturday and Sunday unless absolutely necessary. The works at Euston are all about building more capacity on our rail network as rail travel has never been more popular. A big thank you to everyone for their patience and understanding this weekend."

A Virgin Trains spokesperson said: “We understand that planned improvement works can impact on people’s plans. We would like to thank customers for their patience this weekend while Network Rail carried out preparatory works for HS2.”

The railway between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley also fully reopened after a 16 day closure as part of a £100m investment to provide passengers with a better, more reliable and electric railway from December 2018.

Work also continued to upgrade Bolton station as part of the Great North Rail Project.

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