Baroness Kramer views rail improvements at Huyton and Roby
23 Jun 2014 10:49 AM
Transport minister sees
how improvements will transform rail travel and boost economic growth across
the north of England.
Transport minister Baroness
Kramer visited Huyton and Roby stations on Thursday (19 June 2014) to see how
more than £1 billion of investment will transform rail journeys and boost
economic growth across the north of England.
During her visit, Baroness
Kramer saw how work on the Northern Hub and North West Electrification Programme was
progressing. Once completed in 2019, these schemes will increase capacity,
slash journey times and improve reliability on train services across the region
– generating more than £4 billion worth of economic benefits and up
to 30,000 new jobs.
Network Rail has spent 18 months
on the project to install a third track and make line speed improvements,
allowing for faster services and removing a bottleneck from the network.
Additional platforms are also being built, while other improvements include new
lifts, improved accessibility and upgraded customer information
systems.
Baroness Kramer
said:
These vital improvements will
make a real difference to passengers who use this route every day, as well as
helping to secure lasting economic growth across the north of
England.
More than £38 billion is
being spent on maintaining and improving the UK’s rail network over the
next 5 years, and the work at Huyton and Roby is an important part of
that.
The Northern Hub scheme will
allow hundreds more trains to run each day across the north of England,
providing space for millions more passengers a year. Through a series of
targeted improvements, it will provide faster journeys between Liverpool,
Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Hull by 2019.
As a result of these
improvements, earlier this year, a new direct service between Newcastle and
Liverpool was introduced, reducing journey times by 10 minutes, while further
improvements will allow electric trains to run on the route between Manchester
and Liverpool from December.
Network Rail is working on the
electrification of other routes, including:
- Preston to
Blackpool
- Manchester to
Preston
- Manchester to Leeds and
York
- Oxenholme to
Windermere
- Wigan to
Lostock
Once operational, this will mean
modern, reliable electric trains will be able to run across the
region.
As part of the work at Huyton
and Roby, which is due to be completed this year, there will be a closure from
Edge Hill and Bryn, via St Helens Central, and between Edge Hill and St Helens
Junction between 5 and 13 July. Rail replacement services will be
available.
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