Network Rail has announced that London Euston railway station has reopened today (Monday 3 September) as the final stage of replacing North Wembley junction is completed on time.
More than 20,000 hours were worked by engineers over the three weekends to replace the junction.
The £7.2m project has been planned for three years and has included the replacement of four railway lines and points.
The Kirow crane, with a 125-tonne capacity, along with 15 trains and several tamping trains were used to replace the junction.
What did the officials say?
Martin Frobisher, route managing director for Network Rail said:
“I would like to thank passengers for their understanding while we carry out this vital work. There was never an ideal time to shut the railway, but the three summer weekends were the least disruptive times to do it as there were typically fewer passengers travelling.
“We worked together for the past three years with train operators to carefully plan this closure of the railway in a way that minimised the impact on customers.
“It was vital the track at North Wembley was replaced to continue to safely meet the huge demand of passenger and freight rail services on the West Coast main line.”
Peter Broadley, executive director for customer, operations and safety Virgin Trains said:
“It's going to be great to have Euston back up and running this weekend. We will be running our normal service and the good news is our customers can still take advantage of the relaxation of the lifting of the Friday PM peak restrictions out of London if they want to get away earlier.”
Andrew Conroy, customer experience director for London Northwestern Railway said:
“We put a lot of work into making sure that people who had to travel over the past three weekends could keep moving. While we would all have preferred to be running a full train service, our customers responded well and we should also thank those who heeded the message to travel on alternative days.”
Where Next?
News Homepage
For the Latest Railway News
RailAdvent Online Shop
Framed Prints, DVD's / Blu-Ray's and more
LocoStop Community
Come and share your railway pictures
Network Rail
Visit their website
I think that was the most busiest section on the West Coast Main Line out of London Euston which has caused so many tailbacks and bottlenecks. And by upgrading North Wembley Junction will improve better services and to end the bottleneck. Including freights using the WCML from the freight only Dudding Hill Line and the freight only spur that comes off the North London Line at Willesden Junction.
Werrington Junction north of Peterborough station on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) needs improving with a dive under and at Helpston junction close to the Lincolnshire borders where the Peterborough-Nottingham Line seperates from the ECML.
Aswell improvements to the vital junction north of Newark North Gate station and west of Newark Castle station in Newark, Notts with a new dive under for trains coming off the ECML to and onto the Nottingham-Lincoln line. To reduce the bottleneck on the ECML.
And also dive under or flyover at Colton Junction near York which the ECML 4 track North Pennine Lines which separates west of Church Fenton station with one line towards Selby and Hull and the other line towards Leeds and Manchester which is heavily used by Northern, TransPennine Express and freights.