The Ayrshire and Inverclyde lines are very busy with passenger and freight traffic. The cost of the route was estimated at £170m, with inflation increasing the cost to a potential £210m. Construction was to be in phases with the re-location of football pitches in the route's path at Paisley St James scheduled for 2007, before route clearing and track work in 20. The Scottish Parliament on 29 November 2006 passed the GARL bill by 118 votes to 8, thus allowing the construction of the route to begin. It would then have run along the Inverclyde Line branching-off just before Paisley St James, onto a new purpose-built 1.2 mile (1.9 km) line which would have taken it over the M8 motorway into the airport station, situated close to the main terminal building at Glasgow International Airport. Highly detail trackside models including high speed point motors, catch pits, drains, cable trunking, elevated trunking, elevated circuit cabinet platforms, signal access walkways etc.GARL would have run from a reconstructed Platform 12 at Glasgow Central on the former Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway, Ayrshire Coast Line and Inverclyde Line via Cardonald, Hillington East and Hillington West, to Paisley Gilmour Street station.
Nuneaton North ChordĪs part of a nationwide project to free up space on the network a new rail chord was built north of Nuneaton station and opened to traffic late in 2012. The main bottleneck that remains on the route is the 2 mile long section of double track north of Colwich Junction that passes through Shugborough Tunnel.ĭuring the modernisation project the whole of the Trent Valley line was resignalled with a large number of new signal gantries being erected and provision being made for bi-directional running on a large proportion of the main line. This increased the existing three tracks to four. The new four track section was commissioned in 2008.Īdditional works were carried out between Rugby and Brinklow. Work started in 2004 with the need for substantial civil engineering works including bridge replacement and removal of level crossings at Hademore.
This upgrade provides four tracks throughout the route from Nuneaton to Colwich Junction. The solution was to increase the number of tracks between Armitage and Tamworth.
With plans to accommodate the new and faster Pendolino trains it became clear that this could not be done in parallel with the existing slower local services. Prior to 2004 the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line had an 11 mile (18 km) long section of track between Tamworth and Armitage that was only double track. During modernisation of the route between 20 the catenary was upgraded by replacing many of components mounted to the existing portals (this is now referred to as "UK1" equipment).Īt a cost of around £350 million, Network Rail has carried out significant upgrading of the route. As one of the earlier routes to be energised it features "Mk1" catenary equipment which utilises heavier engineered portal structures compared with later, more modern systems. The line was electrified during the 1960s to the 25kV AC system. The Trent Valley Line was opened during 1847 and now forms part of what is called the West Coast Main Line (WCML). Construction started in November 1845 marked with a ceremonial sod-cutting at Tamworth by Sir Robert Peel on 13 November. With a need to provide a more direct route to the North West of England, the Trent Valley Line was built and opened in 1847. About the Trent Valley West Coast Main Line History