Transpennine Route Upgrade puts apprenticeships in the driving seat for rail in the North

Monday 13 Feb 2023

Transpennine Route Upgrade puts apprenticeships in the driving seat for rail in the North

Region & Route:: Eastern: North & East

The Transpennine Route Upgrade is investing in talent and developing the next generation of rail leaders in the North of England by employing one apprentice for every £4 million spent on the programme.

The multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade employs 80% of its staff from within the local area, including 177 apprentices to date, as it electrifies the line between Manchester and York, via Huddersfield and Leeds.

Alex Marsden works on the Transpennine Route Upgrade East Alliance as an apprentice Civil Engineer. He said: “It's very exciting for me being on such a high-profile project this early in my career. I aspire to become a chartered Civil Engineer in the future and this apprenticeship gives me both the qualifications and the practical experience I need to do that.’’

The Transpennine Route Upgrade is transforming journeys across the North, better connecting towns and cities through more frequent, faster trains, running on a cleaner, greener and more reliable railway.

Neil Holm, Managing Director of the Transpennine Route Upgrade said:

“Providing opportunities for local people to advance their careers in the rail industry through apprenticeships is key to the success of Transpennine Route Upgrade.

We want to provide skills for life to every apprentice that joins our team, and I’m proud of the incredible work being done by our apprentices so far, with many more to join us as the TRU journey continues.”

For more information about apprenticeships with the Transpennine Route Upgrade visit: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/careers/early-careers/apprenticeships/

Notes to Editors

TRU will bring passengers:

More trains to choose from and more seats. Our improvements will enable more trains to run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York with up to six fast services every hour between Leeds and Manchester and up to two stopping services for local connectivity.

Faster journeys so you can travel to your favourite towns and cities more quickly. Our fastest journey times are forecast to be 63-66 minutes between Manchester and York and 41-42 minutes between Manchester and Leeds.

Greener travel, reducing our carbon footprint and improving air quality. Our plans aim to save up to 87,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – supporting the government’s Net Zero objectives. We’re also developing a proposal to move more goods by rail (up to 15 more freight trains each day), taking lorries off the road. Together, these freight trains are expected to remove over 1,000 lorries off the road each day.

Jobs for local people. Our workforce will be local, with 80% employment from within a 40-mile radius of the route, and 60% employment from within a 25-mile radius. With a current workforce of around 2000 people, we estimate that could double over the course of the programme.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Alec Herron
+447809377569
alec.herron@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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