01.10.18
£200m investment to upgrade railway in Derby enters final week
Network Rail’s £200m project to upgrade Derby’s railway has entered its final week.
Engineering work on the Midland Main Line will end early morning on 8 October, marking the completion of the Derby Resignalling Project.
The project, part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade, started back in July and has seen major upgrades to the track, signalling system and Derby’s railway station.
A key bottleneck was removed and line speeds through the station have improved, reducing delays for the four million passengers who use the station every year.
Rob McIntosh, route managing director at Network Rail, said: “We’re really excited to be entering into the final phase of this huge upgrade.
“The new station facilities, along with the smoother passage of trains through the station means passengers can look forward to a more efficient and enjoyable experience.”
Network Rail, East Midlands Trains and CrossCountry have worked together to keep the station open during the engineering work with bus replacements called in to deal with disruption.
From Monday, Network Rail says all services will return to normal.
Jake Kelly, managing director at East Midlands Trains, said: “We have worked in partnership with Network Rail and CrossCountry to make the previous 72 days as smooth as possible for customers.
“However, many have still faced significant disruption and changes to their journeys and we are very grateful for their continued patience and understanding.
“The good news is we are now in the final week of these changes. We are looking forward to reintroducing our full service on Monday, 8 October and making use of the new and improved infrastructure and providing an even better service for our customers.”
CrossCountry’s managing director, Andy Cooper, said: “We know the longer journeys and road replacement services won’t have been easy for everyone, which is why we worked so closely with Network Rail and East Midlands Trains to ensure we could make information on changes to peoples’ journeys during the work easily available.
“And now our focus will turn to how quickly we can make use of the benefits this work delivers, which will include faster journeys between Derby and the North East and a more reliable railway for our customers.”
Enjoying RTM? Subscribe here to receive our weekly news updates or click here to receive a copy of the magazine!