Christmas Rail Shutdown as £26m Upgrade Transforms Key Milton Keynes Junction
Rail travellers are being advised to check their plans in advance as a major programme of engineering work gets underway near Milton Keynes over the Christmas period.
Improvements at Hanslope junction form part of a wider set of upgrades across the West Coast Main Line during the festive shutdown. The junction, around 56 miles north of London Euston and seven miles from Milton Keynes, is a critical point on the network, carrying more than 3,300 passenger and freight services every week.
Despite its importance, ongoing faults at the junction have caused significant disruption in recent years. Over the past five years alone, problems at the site have led to more than 11,000 minutes of delays, the equivalent of over a week of lost service time. Network Rail says the latest investment is designed to improve reliability and reduce knock-on delays for passengers.
From Christmas Eve, engineers will begin a £26m programme to modernise a mile-long section of track. The work will involve replacing 130 individual track components, reinforcing the foundations beneath the railway, and renewing points, switches and crossings throughout the junction.
The scale of the project means services to and from London Euston will be disrupted from Christmas Eve until the morning of 5 January. During this period, trains will not be running between Milton Keynes and Rugby or Milton Keynes and Northampton.
Network Rail is using the closure to complete several additional schemes along the route. At Milton Keynes Central, Platform 4 will undergo a £3.66m renewal, replacing concrete planks and addressing uneven surfaces to improve safety and long-term durability. Wolverton station will see more than £2m invested in resurfacing Platforms 3 and 4, improving the stepping distance between trains and platforms.
Elsewhere, nearly £600,000 is being spent on renewing track near Roade, including the installation of more than 1,500 metres of new rail. In Stafford, work continues on Newport Bridge as part of a £5.4m project to upgrade the structure carrying the A518 over the railway, improving safety for both rail users and road traffic.
With London Euston expected to be quieter during the 11-day closure, station teams will also carry out maintenance work, including improvements to wayfinding signage, repairs to floor tiles, repainting railings on platform ramps and a deep clean of the concourse.
Steve Hopkinson, Network Rail’s operations director for the West Coast South route, said:
“This is a much-needed upgrade which will reduce the number of delays passengers have to experience on the railway and future-proof the West Coast Main Line for decades to come. We have worked hard with our train operator partners to limit disruption to people travelling this Christmas, but please check your journey before you travel.”
Image: Network Rail