The West Coast Main Line is a principal UK railway artery serving London, the Midlands, the North West and Scotland. The modernisation of the West Coast Main Line will deliver the following enhancements:

• 125mph route capability for tilting trains delivering much faster journey times.
• Capacity for significantly more long distance passenger trains than today.
• Capacity for freight traffic growth.
• Benefits for other users of the route, such as key commuter flows, in some cases with enhanced capacity and in others with faster journey times.
• Better and more resilient performance.
• Improved safety measures.

The £7.6 billion project reaches its first major milestone at the end of September 2004 with the introduction of the new 125mph timetable between Manchester, Birmingham and London. Following this there will be incremental line speed improvements north of Crewe and Preston in 2005 and other additional works including the four tracking of Lichfield Trent Valley and the re-modelling of Rugby, with the project scheduled for full completion by 2009.

Click here for more from the Network Rail website.