Customers travelling between Clitheroe and Manchester are urged to check before they travel during a £14m upgrade of the railway line between Clitheroe and Manchester.
Network Rail will be delivering improvements on the line, meaning there will be no train services between Blackburn and Bolton from 17 July until 24 August 2015. The work is to lengthen the double track section at Darwen station to allow a more robust and frequent service to run between Blackburn and Manchester. The works will include:
- 2 miles of new track
- Recovery of 3 point ends
- Installing 2 new points ends
- Reconstruction of 2 underbridges
- Re-sleeper/re-railing – various locations
- New and repaired drainage
- Retaining wall remedial works (soil nailing)
- New telecoms infrastructure
- New signalling power supplies
- New signalling (8 new lightweight signal posts)
- Minor Preston Power Box panel modifications
- New Points heating supplies
See below for some images of the work so far.
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- Bridge 42 ready for lift
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- ge 42 crane set up 1
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- Bridge 42 crane ready for lift
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- Bridge 42 lift underway
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- Bridge 42 all sections in place
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- Soil nail drilling
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- Soli nails waiting concrete pour
To see the full Network Rail presentation about the work being carried out please click HERE.
Funded by the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership, Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, the improvements will see additional track installed for one mile either side of Darwen Station. This will provide the necessary capacity for a more reliable, frequent service throughout the day between Manchester and Blackburn, with two trains per hour by 2017.
Additional work is also been carried out at other stations on the route funded by contributions from Lancashire County Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and Network Rail’s National Station Improvement Programme (NSIP). The work will include the installation of new shelters on the stations between Clitheroe and Blackburn, Customer Information Screens (CIS) at all intermediate stations except Entwistle, repairs to fencing, painting and improved signage. This work is due to be completed by the end of 2015.
Timetables for the stations during the rail works can be downloaded on line: http://www.northernrail.org/pdfs/Blackburn-blockade-timetable.pdf
There will be bus replacements between Blackburn and Bolton (calling at Hall I’th Wood, Bromley Cross and Darwen).
For those travelling from Blackburn, there will still be a direct rail service from Blackburn to Manchester but via Burnley. Details are available here http://www.northernrail.org/todmorden-curve
For the latest travel information visit nationalrail.co.uk/blackburn or northernrail.org/blackburn