Passengers across the North West are set to benefit from an £84 million government investment to cut delays and improve the reliability of trains across the region. The works will deliver trackside upgrades, platform extensions for longer trains, and bigger depots across the region.

The funding will provide improved passenger facilities at Manchester Piccadilly, Victoria, and Manchester International Airport stations. As well as resignalling along the Castlefield Corridor and remodelling of Manchester Oxford Road station. In addition to this, it will fund work on the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) which continues with the electrification and resignalling of the line and track renewals to deliver faster, more frequent, and reliable trains for passengers

All of these improvements are in addition to the Integrated Rail Plan,  which is investing £96 billion investment across the North and Midlands to transform rail services.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

“This £84 million investment will make trains more reliable for the people of Manchester and beyond and kicks off a decade’s worth of improvements across the region.”

Dave Penney, passenger strategy director for Network Rail’s North West and Central region, said:

“Network Rail has worked with the whole industry as part of the Manchester Recovery Task Force on how to maximise this £84 million investment that promises to boost capacity and improve connectivity across the North of England as part of Britain’s rail recovery.”

Nick Donovan, Managing Director at Northern Trains, said:

“This investment will improve the infrastructure that will allow trains with more carriages to run through Manchester, benefiting the wider network and the thriving leisure economy of the North.”