Network
LARGE sections of the West Coast Main Line - including Euston station - were shut for four days over the Easter weekend as Network Rail carried out a series of major national engineering projects costing a total of £90 million.
Most notable among 493 individual assignments was the commissioning of the connection to Maritime’s new SEGRO Logistics rail freight terminal in Northampton, next to Junction 15 of the M1 motorway.
Much of the track layout at the new junction has been in place since last autumn, and daily services are planned to run over it later this year.
The date of the UK-wide programme was selected for a time when fewer passenger and freight trains ran, with diversions and bus substitutions commonplace. NR claimed that 95% of passengers were still able to travel, albeit many of them on replacement buses.
Along the WCML, the opportunity was taken to renew track, switches and crossings between London and Milton Keynes, including near Kensal Green tunnel and at Denbigh Hall. This also meant that no trains could run on the Abbey Line between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey.
Further north, outstanding drainage and overhead work was attended to between Wigan and Northwich, as well as station and platform improvements at Lancaster. This meant a limited service to Barrow-in-Furness (buses to Grange-over-Sands) and no Windermere or Morecambe trains. Wigan Wallgate-Manchester Victoria/Stalybridge services started and terminated at Bolton, while Southport-Blackburn services only ran to Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Lime Street-Wigan North Western-Blackpool North services to St Helens Central. Buses ran between Southport and Wigan, Bolton and Salford Crescent, and St Helens Central and Preston.
Chester-Manchester Victoria/ Leeds services started at Warrington Bank Quay due to engineering work, while the Ellesmere Port-Helsby timetable was abandoned.
In the West Midlands, the Cross-City Line between Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Trent Valley was closed between April 2-5 for the £1m strengthening of the A38(M) Tame Valley Viaduct, which required scaffolding over the track.
The closure also enabled overhead line work to be carried out, as well as the replacement of signals and points cables between Wylde Green and Shenstone stations.
