Media centre

Tuesday 8 May 2018

Railway reopens after successful May bank holiday upgrades are completed

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

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

Network Rail‘s Team Orange worked round-the-clock over the early May bank holiday weekend on improvements including track renewals and overhead line, tunnel and signalling upgrades.

Work completed on time which will help provide passengers with a better, more reliable railway included:
- Ongoing work to electrify the railway between Manchester and Preston via Bolton
- Overhead line work and maintenance of the structure of Kilsby tunnel near Rugby
- Maintenance, including work on the overhead lines, signalling and telecommunications, between Northampton, Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard
- Track renewal through Bletchley

Planned work continues today (8 May) on the Halton Chord upgrade and on the installation of new signalling on the Weaver-Wavertree project on Merseyside. The railway is set to fully reopen tomorrow.

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 work 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.”

Looking ahead to the spring bank holiday, there will be significant work taking place in the West Midlands between Birmingham New Street and Coventry as a new, more reliable signalling system is brought into use.

Buses will replace trains between Birmingham and Coventry between Saturday 26 and Monday 28 May and between Coventry and Birmingham.

On Saturday 26 May, no trains will run between Birmingham and Lichfield and Wolverhampton to Walsall services will start from Birmingham New Street.

A replacement bus service will be in place for passengers travelling from Milton Keynes to Northampton on the morning of Sunday 27 May while track maintenance and signalling work takes place in the area.

In the north west, track renewal in the Penrith area on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 May will mean bus replacement services for some journeys on the West Coast main line

Work will also continue on the Halton Curve and Weaver-Wavertree upgrades from 12.15pm on Saturday 27 May until midday on Monday 28 May which will affect some services in and out of Liverpool Lime Street.

There will be further work on the railway between Preston and Manchester as work continues to electrify the railway. This will affect all services to and from Manchester via Bolton from Saturday 26 to Monday 28 May.

Over both bank holidays, there will be enabling work at Euston taking place in preparation for High Speed 2.

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