WEST COAST ROUTE TO REOPEN

Thursday 3 Jan 2008

WEST COAST ROUTE TO REOPEN

Region & Route:: National

CONTRACTORS INVOLVED IN WORK TO BE SUBJECT TO URGENT REVIEW Network Rail confirmed this afternoon that the work at Rugby would be completed and the West Coast route reopen for services first thing tomorrow morning. Iain Coucher, Chief Executive, said: "I can confirm that trains will start to run normally on the West Coast again from tomorrow. I can take no comfort from this news in the knowledge of the pain and inconvenience we have caused passengers over the past few days. I know that we have let passengers down with the over-run at Rugby. "An investigation into the causes of the over-run has been launched and I will be chairing a high-level meeting next week to review what's happened. I will be summoning our project managers, Bechtel, and the principal contractors involved to attend so they can personally explain to me what has gone wrong. They gave me assurances before Christmas on which they have not delivered. I want answers from them. "The railway will be back tomorrow but the work is far from done. We have a significant programme for developing and expanding the railway over the coming years and we have to make certain that it is carried out to plan."

Notes to editors

Note to editors: • The £415m work at Rugby / Nuneaton forms part of a bigger scheme that looks to significantly increase the frequency and reduce the journey time of services on the West Coast Main Line from December 2008. • The work at Rugby over the Christmas break is a vital component to the overall scheme introducing new tracks, and enabling the next stages of work to commence as planned. • The work at Rugby over Christmas included: o Installing over 5km of overhead line o Bringing into use 5.3km of new track o Bringing into use 15 new sets of points o Installing two new sets of points o Bringing into use 18 new signals o Making 16 new track connections o Demolishing a mini-signal box o Removing 11 sections of overhead wire and moving a further 14 o Removing four signalling gantries o Installing nine new signalling 'booster' cabinets

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