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Tuesday 28 Aug 2018

Railway reopens after successful bank holiday upgrades are completed on time

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Rail workers worked round-the-clock over the August bank holiday weekend delivering essential improvements to provide passengers with a better, more reliable railway.

London Euston station reopened today (Tuesday 28 August) after the second stage of work to replace North Wembley junction was completed. The junction is one of the busiest in Europe and replacing it will mean a more reliable service for passenger and freight services.

The West Coast main line is fully open today, as planned.

Passengers are being reminded that, to complete the replacement, the line and London Euston station will be closed to trains for the third and final time this weekend (1-2 September).

The railway line between Birmingham International and Rugby also fully reopened this morning on time and as planned.

Work 400m of track was renewed in Canley, Coventry and work continued on a £5m drainage project in Hampton-in-Arden, Solihull, to reduce the risk of flooding on the line between Birmingham International and Coventry.

Work continued over the weekend to complete the upgrade of the railway between Manchester and Preston via Bolton. The upgrade will provide passengers with better, more reliable electric services as part of a multi-billion pound investment across the North of England. The railway will remain closed until Sunday (2 September) when buses will replace trains.

Martin Frobisher, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “This work is 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 complete these vital upgrades.”

Andrew Conroy, customer experience director for London Northwestern Railway said: “We put a lot of work into making sure that people who had to travel this weekend could keep moving.  While we would all have preferred to be running a full train service , our customers responded well and we should also thank those who heeded the message to travel on alternative days.”

Peter Broadley, executive director for customer, operations and safety at Virgin Trains on the west coast, said: “We’d like to thank customers for bearing with us during the significant disruption caused by these renewals works.”

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