Media centre

Tuesday 28 Nov 2023

Railway upgrade Christmas and New Year travel advice for passengers

Region & Route:

North West & Central

Rail passengers in Network Rail’s North West and Central region will benefit from a better, more reliable railway in 2024 thanks to upgrade and maintenance work taking place this Christmas and New Year.  

The essential upgrades on the West Coast main line, Chiltern main line and routes in the West Midlands, North West and Cumbria, have been carefully planned to impact the fewest number of passengers.

Network Rail is investing £15m this festive season on:

• Improving and maintaining track, overhead electrical wires and signalling equipment on the southern approach to Birmingham New Street station.
• Upgrading Platform 3 at Lichfield Trent Valley station, following work completed in the summer to remove the old platform. A replacement deck will be installed and reopened on the Cross City line in the new year.
• Continuing with work to connect the Strategic Rail Freight Terminal at Northampton to the West Coast main line for freight trains to start using the terminal in 2024.
• Improving and maintaining track, overhead electrical wires, signalling equipment and bridges from Euston to Crewe.
• Vital repairs to steelwork and drainage near Manchester Piccadilly station.
• Maintenance work along the track at Oxenholme in the Lake District.

While improvements take place on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, HS2 will continue with construction work for the Curdworth Box which will take new high speed trains over existing rail lines as they travel from London and Birmingham before joining the West Coast main line in Staffordshire.

Most of the improvements will happen during the traditional railway shutdown from the end of service on Christmas Eve until the railway fully reopens on 27 December.

However, some of the work could impact journeys after then so passengers are advised to plan their journeys in advance by visiting www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Dave Penney, Network Rail’s North West and Central region passenger director, said: “While people enjoy time with their friends and families over Christmas, thousands of Network Rail staff will be working round-the-clock to maintain and improve the railway to provide passengers with better, more reliable journeys in the New Year.

“I know there is never a good time to disrupt journeys while we carry out large pieces of work but whenever possible we do this at times when there are significantly fewer people travelling by train, such as Christmas and other bank holidays. I appreciate people have important plans, so I urge them to please plan ahead and check before they travel for the latest journey information.”

Passengers are being given advance notice of further work on New Year’s Day near Birmingham New Street station which will mean fewer trains running between Birmingham and London Euston.

Local trains between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International will not run and West Midlands Trains will operate rail replacement buses between Birmingham International, Marston Green, Lea Hall, Stechford, Adderley park and Birmingham Moor Street stations (instead of Birmingham New Street).

Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry will operate a significantly reduced service between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International stations and their trains are expected to be very busy.

People planning to travel on Monday 1 January are urged to check with their train operator and plan journeys in advance.

For more information you can visit: www.networkrail.co.uk/wcml