West Coast progress report

This article summarises a progress report on the Midlands and north-west of England section of the West Coast Route Modernisation project in the UK's railway network. Some projects, in particular modernisation at Bletchley and Stafford, will be left till after 2009, when most of the work is expected to be complete. Station and track improvements at Milton Keynes should be finished at the end of 2008, and layout and speed capacity at Rugby will be upgraded, including overhaul and waterproofing of a flyover link. Two new bridges are being built to replace an old one over the river Tame, increasing capacity. Junction and signalling improvements in the north-west have avoided expensive resignalling work. The use of autotransformers to improve power supply to the overhead line is still being investigated. A new bypass is proposed at Stafford. Ways of improving track capacity include electric freight haulage and longer passenger trains, but line speeds above 125 miles per hour are unlikely with current signalling restrictions. (A)