A major upgrade on the West Coast Main Line will lead to significant delays for passengers over the next ten years
This project is going to cost around £3.8 billion, and it’s going to mean a lot of closures. We’re talking about sections of the line being shut down for weeks at a time, every year, for the next ten years. That’s a long time to deal with delays!
Network Rail is in charge of this upgrade, and they’ll need to take control of the railway between Warrington Bank Quay and Carlisle. This will affect other stations like Wigan, Preston, and Lancaster too. They’re planning to offer bus replacements, but it sounds like they’re expecting a lot of knock-on delays across the UK.
Passengers might even start choosing planes over trains to get between Scotland and London, which is a big deal. The West Coast Main Line is super busy, handling 40% of all UK rail freight traffic.
Avanti West Coast, the company running the trains, carried 32 million passengers last year. They’re saying it’s too early to know how this will affect their schedules, but it’s definitely going to be a challenge.
With the West Coast Main Line already running close to capacity, any closures will have a domino effect on services. And let’s not forget, HS2 was supposed to help ease the pressure, but that plan got scrapped.
Chris Coleman from Network Rail mentioned that they’ll need to disrupt services to get this work done, and they’ll be consulting with everyone involved in the coming months. It’s going to be a tough decade for train travelers, that’s for sure!
