Rail travellers warned to expect more delays over Christmas season

Railway engineering works

People travelling across the North West are being advised to plan ahead this Christmas and New Year due to planned engineering works.

Over the festive period, Network Rail is carrying out improvement and maintenance work on key projects in Manchester and Liverpool, as part of the Great North Rail Project.

As part of the national Railway Upgrade Plan, a 25,000-strong workforce will be working across Britain to carry out more than £148m of work between Christmas Eve and 3 January.

Overall there will be less disruption for rail users on the London North Western route this year compared to last. Most of the investment work between Euston and Carlisle has been scheduled for when no trains will run on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

However, passengers should check www.nationalrail.co.uk to plan their journey and for the latest information before travelling this Christmas.

On Merseyside, that involves major infrastructure improvements as part of the multi-million-pound Liverpool City Region investment, including:

• Signalling upgrades as part of the Weaver to Wavertree resignalling project between 9.15pm on Monday 24 December and 12.30am on Wednesday 2 January. Signalling areas in Allerton, Speke and Garston are being recontrolled to the Manchester Rail Operating Centre. The upgrades will enable more reliable journeys and boost capacity in the area. During the work rail replacement buses will run between Runcorn and Liverpool South Parkway. It will also mean changes to some services to/from Liverpool Lime Street.

• Remodelling of station platforms and track at James Street, Hamilton Square, Conway Park and Birkenhead Park on the Merseyrail network. This will prepare the Merseyrail stations for the arrival of their new, state-of-the-art trains from 2020 – in particular, making sure that the new trains’ sliding step can meet the platform edge. The work will involve station and line closures, but rail replacement buses will be in operation between Thursday 27 December and Thursday 3 January.
In Greater Manchester work will progress on the Great North Rail Project electrification upgrade, including:

• Boosting of electrical feeds between Ordsall and Stalybridge: Work to install an additional electrical feed that will provide extra resilience to power electric trains in the North West in 2019 will be undertaken.

• Overhead wire installation at Manchester Victoria: Overhead wires will be installed on the eastern lines outside Manchester Victoria station impacting some services during the work.

• Tunnel cabling work in Ashton-under-Lyne: Preparation work will be carried out in the Katherine Street tunnel to enable lineside cables to be laid.

• Lineside drainage improvements: Work will be carried out to upgrade drainage near Ashton-under-Lyne station.

Martin Frobisher, London North Western route managing director, said: “The railway is traditionally much quieter than usual during the festive period so taking on and delivering these bigger pieces of work at this time, as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan, means we will cause the least inconvenience to the fewest number of people.

“While the majority of the network is open as usual, some routes will be affected so I would urge passengers to plan their journeys and check before they travel for the latest information.”

In some parts of the country, work will begin on Sunday 23 December this year to give engineers three clear days to make uninterrupted progress on vital projects.

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