Over the Easter period, Network Rail completed a number of upgrades to the railway in a £31m project.

Vital work was carried out on the railway between London and Scotland between Friday 2 and Tuesday 6 April.

The work included installing new bridges at Warrington Bank Quay station, upgrading the signalling at Birmingham New Street as well as work at Euston for HS2.

In addition, two new underpasses were installed under the Chiltern main line in Bicester.

The railway was closed for 100 hours while the work was completed.

The video below shows the installation work which included removing 21,000 tonnes of the railway embankment.

Tim Shoveller, managing director for Network Rail’s North West & Central region, said: “Hundreds of frontline staff worked throughout the bank holiday to improve journeys for passengers and freight in the North West and Central region and I’m immensely proud of them and our contractors who helped Network Rail deliver these major upgrades. This is just the start of 2021’s work to make the West Coast main line more reliable for our passengers and pave the way for HS2, which will bring much-needed extra railway capacity as the country builds back better from the pandemic.

“Now our attention turns to the early May bank holiday when more essential railway improvements will take place. Because of the amount of work being done, passengers are being urged to travel either side of the bank holiday on Friday 30 April and Tuesday 4 May.”

Further work is to be completed over the bank holiday weekends later this year.

Work scheduled for these periods includes track renewals on the West Coast mainline, and signalling work in  Greater Manchester, Preston and Warrington,

Passengers should plan ahead for any journeys they are thinking of taking, see the National Rail Enquiries website for more information.