Rail service improvements and disruptions

£20m Northern train depot refurb in Manchester

The £20m refurbishment of Arriva Rail North’s (Northern) Newton Heath train depot in Manchester is almost completed.

Northern’s brand new diesel trains will be kept at Newton Heath and the team of 300 staff will also be responsible for maintenance, routine servicing and repairs, which typically takes place at night to keep trains in passenger service during the day.

50,000 tones of soil had to be removed from the site before construction of the new maintenance shed began. 521 steel posts were driven into the ground to support the structure.

Since July 2019 the structure has been built and four maintenance bays, fully equipped with examination pits and heavy lifting equipment have been installed.

The project at Newton Heath is due for completion in June 2020 and the new shed will have sixteen 15 tonne power jacks fitted, which will be strong enough to lift a four-carriage, 96-metre-long train.

Before the new and improved shed was built, these carriages would have been split to allow undercarriage components such as engines and wheel sets to be replaced. Having the ability to lift a whole train in one go will speed up renewals meaning trains can re-enter customer service sooner.

Other depots across Northern’s network are set to see substantial investment with developments taking place at Allerton, Ardwick and Neville Hill. Meanwhile Network Rail has constructed brand new trains depts for Northern at Blackburn and Wigan Springs Branch.

Northern’s Engineering Director, Ben Ackroyd, said: “We want to make sure we can get as many trains as possible in service for customers and to do that we need state of the art engineering facilities and expert technicians and engineers.

“Train maintenance depots are the unseen critical element of the railway and we are delivering multi-million investment across the region to improve and expand these operations.

“Infrastructure development is not easy and takes a long time, but I am confident our improved depots will deliver more trains into service on a daily basis and help improve capacity for customers, as well as creating dozens of new jobs and career opportunities.”

Images: Northern