Passengers are benefiting from a more reliable railway after Christmas and New Year maintenance and upgrade work was completed.
Thousands of Network Rail staff worked round-the-clock at different locations between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day as part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan.
Work in the North West and Central region – which runs from Euston and Marylebone in London, to Scotland via the West Midlands and North West – included:
- Work in and around Euston station in preparation for HS2
- Work on overhead wire stanchions at Bletchley ahead of a new flyover being built across the West Coast main line to carry East West Rail between Oxford and Bedford
- Track being replaced in Tring and Crewe stations
- Railway drainage improvements between Preston and Lancaster
- Track renewal in the Haddenham & Thame Parkway area
- Track renewal and a level crossing replacement near Warrington
- Piling at Humphrey Park in Greater Manchester for platform extensions
- Ballast, the stone foundation of the railway, being replaced in Wolverhampton
- Ongoing preparation work for the full resignalling of Birmingham New Street in 2022.
Tim Shoveller, managing director of Network Rail’s North West and Central region, said: “Passengers are benefiting from a better, more reliable railway after the maintenance and upgrade work which took place over Christmas and the New Year. I thank passengers and our lineside neighbours for their patience while we carried out this vital work to help provide a better railway for passengers.”
Nationally, more than 20,000 railway staff delivered around 380 separate projects.
