The West Coast Main Line is one of the grandest achievements of the Industrial Age. When it was built in the 1830s to link London with Birmingham, it was the only long distance railway on Earth. It evolved into the busiest mixed-use rail corridor in the UK, stretching from London to Edinburgh.
When the British government decided in 1998 to reduce journey times and add capacity to its rails, it was clear the job would not be a straightforward upgrade. The length of track—640 kilometers—was staggering and more curly than straight, presenting problems for today’s high-speed rail cars. Some sections were seriously dilapidated, and new trains would require a complete overhaul of signaling, power supply, and switching systems.
When Bechtel entered the picture in February 2002, the project was experiencing severe difficulties. Bechtel restructured the project and the new plan called for tilting trains running at up to 200 kph, using more sophisticated, radio-based signaling.
To reduce inconvenience to the nation’s commuters and rail freighters by keeping blockades to a minimum, site work has mainly been restricted to nights and weekends. Many observers doubted that any of the revised goals could be met. To hit the first major milestone, crews had to renew 1,505 kilometers of track, install more than 966 kilometers of overhead wiring, set down 460 new sets of points (or switches), fit out 1,569 units of a new train protection warning system, and move nearly a million tonnes of ballast, enough to fill six supertankers (see Detail Design).
Journey times between London and Manchester have been cut by 25 minutes, to two hours and five minutes, and the London to Glasgow trip is 42 minutes faster than before.
For more information see the January 2007 Bechtel Briefs.
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