Friday 16 Nov 2018
Wigan-Manchester railway lines will be closed to trains tomorrow
- Region & Route:
- | North West & Central
The main Wigan-Manchester railway lines will be closed to trains on Saturday so that Network Rail can finish off engineering works as part of the Manchester-Preston upgrade.
Network Rail is closing the Wigan to Manchester lines (via Atherton and Bolton) to trains and, as a result, Northern will not be able to operate any trains on the affected lines tomorrow, Saturday 17 November.
Network Rail sincerely apologises for the very short notice we have given Northern and its customers. We are using this additional access to finish off snagging and assurance work that are critical to complete the electrification between Preston and Manchester.
Without this work going ahead tomorrow, the completion of the electrification scheme could be further delayed and could cause further delays to the introduction of electric trains on the route. We want to safeguard against that.
Further potential weekend closures are currently being discussed and will be communicated once agreed.
Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience this short notice work will cause and urge all passengers check before they travel using National Rail Enquiries for all the latest updates.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
07740 782954
NWCmediarelations@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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