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West Coast rail works completed West Coast rail works completed
(about 10 hours later)
A decade-long project to rebuild Britain's busiest railway line, the West Coast line between London and Glasgow, has finally been completed. Passengers will enjoy a "huge benefit" after the completion of a decade-long project to rebuild Britain's busiest railway line, network bosses have said.
Passengers are set to see improved services with journey times cut by up to 30%. The £13bn modernisation of the West Coast mainline, linking London and Glasgow, is one of the biggest civil engineering enterprises for a decade.
The engineering work has been highly controversial with the budget spiralling to £13bn. Track maintainer Network Rail says services will be improved and journey times cut by up to 30%.
In January over-running engineering works caused several days of disruption for passengers. In January delayed work on the line caused travellers days of disruption.
The West Coast Route modernisation has been one of the biggest civil engineering enterprises of the last decade. From Sunday, there will be more than 1,100 extra trains running on the West Coast line each week, a 50% increase in trains to Manchester and Birmingham and services almost doubling at weekends.
The ageing but heavily-used line was rebuilt to take tilting trains travelling at 125 miles an hour, with new junctions and signalling to ease the flow of services belonging to a number of train companies. Engineering delays
SCALE OF THE JOB 174 new or altered bridges Over 800 points replacedOver three million yards of rail and sleepers laid53 new or extended platforms New junctions and signalling equipment will also ease the flow of services.
There will be an additional 1,000 extra trains running each week, a 50% increase in services to Manchester and Birmingham and services almost doubling at weekends. The line, which is used by 75 million people a year, will also be able to carry tilting trains with speeds of 125mph.
Few regular travellers between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow have escaped disruption from the work. Virgin Trains is the biggest beneficiary, with the completion allowing it to run a third more trains. The fastest London to Glasgow journey time will take four hours 10 minutes.
In January the work at Rugby overran by several days and Network Rail was fined a record £14m by the Office of Rail Regulation for the resulting chaos. SCALE OF THE JOB 174 new or altered bridges Over 800 points replacedOver 1,700 miles of rail and sleepers laid53 new or extended platforms
But that work, the last in a long list, is now complete, with new high specification rail laid through the area, enabling trains to pass through at full speed. Chief executive of Network Rail, Iain Coucher, said the travelling public and businesses would benefit.
Virgin Trains is the biggest beneficiary, the completion will allow it to run a third more trains and the fastest London to Glasgow journey time from next month will take four hours 10 minutes. "What we've done this weekend is to raise the number of trains using it by another 1,000 a week. That gives an extra 60,000 seats on trains everyday, particularly for those people going into London," he said.
"It's a huge benefit to everybody using it."
Alan McLane, from Virgin Trains, told the BBC the ability to run more trains would allow the firm to offer another 13 million seats a year.
"We have been running at 125 mph on the West Coast mainline for the last four years," he said.
"But other work had to be done before we could get the full benefits from the modernisation of the route.
"We're going through Rugby now at that speed instead of about 40. That's a huge improvement."
Record fine
The work has brought severe disruption for passengers.
Thousands of travellers were affected by delays to engineering work on the busy London to Scotland route at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.
Network Rail was fined a record £14m for the overruns by the Office of Rail Regulation.
While passenger groups have welcomed the end of the decade-long upgrade, Ashwin Kumar from Passenger Focus said the ticketing system should be improved along with the frequency of the trains.
"If you're travelling between London and Birmingham, or London and Manchester, it's a fantastic service - every 20 minutes.
"But increasingly, in order to get the cheapest tickets, you're having to buy an advance ticket, which means you can only travel on one specific train."