£20 million Christmas railway upgrades complete on West Coast Main Line

Network Rail has completed £20 million of railway upgrades along the West Coast Main Line during the Christmas period, including work in Stockport.

The railway between London and the North-west, and Scotland has fully reopened after a number of closures along its route while engineering projects were successful carried out.

In Stockport, a temporary scaffold bridge has been constructed across the railway in the town centre. The structure will divert important utility services from the Greek Street roundabout before work begins on a £16 million replacement bridge later this year. From March 2025, the Greek Street roundabout and part of the nearby roads nearby will close for about a year as the main work begins, with further rail closures planned as work continues.

Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, overhead line equipment in Central Manchester has also been upgraded, while overhead lines between Wigan and Bolton were switched on, allowing electric trains to use the route for the first time.

Hundreds of engineers and contractors across Network Rail‘s North West and Central region worked throughout the festive period on other schemes including:

• A new digital era for train signalling through Crewe with the completion of a two-year scheme to upgrade a major freight depot and the lines which connect it to the West Coast Main Line
• Track upgrades through a narrow Victorian tunnel on the West Coast Main Line near Berkhamsted
• Improved track quality around the Birmingham New Street station area
• Track drainage and upgrade work near Milton Keynes and upgrades between Watford and Milton Keynes

Phil James, Network Rail’s North West route director, said:

“Over the holidays season, many of our colleagues across the route, region and supply chain were out in force on the railway delivering a £20m package of upgrades.

“The completed mammoth projects, which included the modernisation the traffic lights of the railway and overhead line equipment in Crewe, the start of works to rebuild a overbridge on Stockport’s high street and the electrification of the Wigan to Lostock Junction railway, were designed to drive up the reliability of passenger and freight services right across the West Coast Main Line and into Greater Manchester.

“While these upgrades were delivered as a package to prevent journeys being disrupted on consecutive weekends throughout the year, we are grateful to passengers for their patience while bus service replacements were in operation across some parts of the network.”