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Thursday 8 Feb 2024

Weekend engineering work to affect CrossCountry services

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: Central

Passengers are being advised about changes to weekend trains between Birmingham New Street and Coleshill Parkway while major HS2 work takes place in the Nechells area of Birmingham.

Network Rail is supporting HS2 engineers to move a new 84-metre-long, 1,600 tonne road bridge into position on Aston Church Road.

The new bridge which spans the existing railway will allow Britain’s new high-speed trains to pass beneath into Birmingham Curzon Street, the first brand new intercity terminus station built in Britain since the 19th century.

Starting on Saturday 10 February and finishing Sunday 3 March, teams will be working every weekend which means the railway between Birmingham New Street and Coleshill Parkway stations needs to be closed.

Rail replacement bus services will run throughout from Birmingham New Street to Coleshill Parkway, with the line also shut between Burton-on-Trent and Tamworth on Sunday 18 February.

To reduce disruption to passengers, HS2 engineers have built the new bridge structure on land next to the existing railway and will to move it into position in one operation in order to minimise disruption to rail passengers.

Patrick Cawley, Director for Network Rail and HS2’s On Network Works team, said: “Over the next few weekends, HS2 teams will complete a major feat of engineering, manoeuvring a 1,600 tonne bridge into position over the railway, where it will eventually be installed and open to pedestrians and road users.”

“We know there’s never a good time to close the railway, but working in consecutive weekend closures means we can keep the railway open as much as possible during the week. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience and remind them to check before they travel during the closure dates.”

Clare Shaw, Interim Regional Director for CrossCountry’s East Midlands and East Anglia region, said: “We’re sorry to customers whose journeys are affected by engineering work at Water Orton over upcoming weekends. I’d ask customers to check their entire journey before travelling and to leave more time than usual to get to their destination.”

Over the four weekends, passengers should check before they travel at www.nationalrail.co.uk. Services will also be affected between Birmingham New Street and Stanstead Airport, Cardiff Central and Nottingham and Scotland and the North East to the South West.

Details of the closures and rail replacement bus service can be found below:

• Saturday 10 – Sunday 11 February: Buses will replace trains between Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham New Street.
• Saturday 17 – Monday 19 February: Buses will replace trains between Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham New Street. On Sunday 18 February buses will replace trains between Burton-on-Trent and Tamworth.
• Saturday 24 – Sunday 25 February: Buses will replace trains between Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham New Street.
• Saturday 2 – Sunday 3 March: Buses will replace trains between Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham New Street. On Sunday 3 March buses will replace trains between Nuneaton, Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham New Street.

For more information about the bus service please see www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/waterorton2024 

For more information about HS2, please visit www.hs2.org.uk