West Coast Main Line
The
West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important intercity railway lines in the
United Kingdom, part of the
British railway system. The line links
London and
Glasgow on a 401-mile route which runs via the
West Midlands, the
North West and southern
Scotland.
The WCML also serves other important towns and cities including
Milton Keynes,
Northampton,
Rugby,
Nuneaton,
Coventry,
Birmingham,
Wolverhampton,
Stafford,
Stoke-on-Trent,
Macclesfield,
Crewe,
Warrington,
Wigan,
Stockport,
Manchester,
Liverpool,
Preston,
Lancaster,
Carlisle and
Edinburgh.
The line was built in stages between the 1830s and the 1870s, with the first stages being the
Grand Junction Railway (
Warrington - Birmingham) and the
London and Birmingham Railway, both completed in the 1830s. These lines together with the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the
North Union Railway and the
Manchester and Birmingham Railway amalgamated in 1846 to form the
London and North Western Railway (LNWR). North of Carlisle, the
Caledonian Railway remained independent and built its mainline to Glasgow in 1849. One important section, the
North Staffordshire Railway, which opened its line in 1848 from Macclesfield (connecting with the LNWR from Manchester) via Stoke-on-Trent to
Norton Bridge and
Colwich, also remained independent until the forced amalgamations of 1922.
Partly to appease the concerns and anger of landowners along the route, in places the line was built so that it avoided large estates and rural towns, but also to reduce construction costs the line in places followed natural contours, resulting in many curves and bends. The WCML also passes through some of the more hilly areas of the British mainland, such as the Chilterns (
Tring cutting), the
Watford Gap and Northampton uplands followed by the Trent Valley, the mountains of
Cumbria with a summit at
Shap and the
Beattock summit in the Leadhills area of southern Lanarkshire. This has left a legacy of lower maximum speeds on the line compared to the
East Coast Main Line route, and the principal solution to the problem has been the adoption of
tilting trains, formerly
British Rail's ill-fated
APT, and latterly the
Pendolino trains introduced by Virgin in 2003.
The route to Scotland was marketed by the LNWR as 'The Premier Line' but operations were complicated by incompatible braking systems since the LNWR used the
vacuum brake and the Caledonian used the
Westinghouse air brake. Through trains were therefore of necessity composed of dual braked and jointly owned "West Coast Joint Stock" (so named). Following amalgamation, in
1922, it became part of the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and the vacuum brake quickly became standard. In
1947, following nationalisation, it came under control of British Railways
London Midland and
Scottish Regions, when the term "West Coast Main Line" officially came into use, although the term is something of a misnomer given that the line only runs along the coast on a brief section just north of Lancaster.
The WCML is not a single railway; rather it can be thought of as a network of routes which diverge and rejoin the central spine which runs between London Euston and Glasgow Central. The route from Rugby to Birmingham Wolverhampton and Stafford was the original main line until the shorter line was built via the Trent Valley. There is a loop that serves Northampton and a branch north of Crewe to Liverpool. The WCML includes loops that branch off to serve Manchester, one from Colwich Junction in the Trent Valley south of Stafford via Stoke-on-Trent, one north of Stafford also via Stoke-on-Trent and one via Crewe and
Wilmslow. The Windsor Link north-south junction line in Manchester constructed by British Rail in 1988 has made possible a through service via
Bolton back to the main line at Preston. A further branch at Carstairs links Edinburgh to the WCML, giving it a direct connection to the East Coast route.
The line was modernised and electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974 - initial electrification was in 1959 between Crewe and Manchester and Liverpool, with the rest of the southern section of the line following in stages to 1967; the line from Weaver Junction (where the route to Liverpool diverges) to Glasgow was electrified in 1974. This era was notable for time consuming and congestion causing routine changes from at first steam and later diesel to electric traction at busy change-over stations like Birmingham New Street, Crewe and Preston. Electrification did not arrive on the short
Carstairs Junction -
Edinburgh Waverley branch until
1989, since this was at the time considered part of the ECML.
Modernisation culminated in the adoption of
air brakes for locomotive hauled express trains. Also under British Rail, freight train operations and practices changed drastically resulting in the virtual elimination of the traditional slow moving and generally unbraked pick-up goods train and the introduction of faster moving point to point train load operations using air braked vehicles.
The running of express passenger services on the WCML came under the
InterCity brand in the late 1970s, which prior to privatisation in 1996 was known as "InterCity West Coast". "InterCity CrossCountry" with its hub at Birmingham was also greatly developed with the introduction of transferred HST units following the electrification of the
East Coast Main Line. Following privatisation, the principal operator on the line has been
Virgin Trains who operate all long-distance express services, but many regional operators along the route also run local commuter sevices.
The WCML is currently undergoing a major upgrade along almost its entire length. The original plans drawn up by
Railtrack estimated that this upgrade would cost £2bn, be ready by 2005, and cut journey times London to Birmingham to 1hr (currently 1hr 40mins) and 1hr 45mins London to Manchester. This would be achieved through increasing the line speed to 225 km/h (140 mph), in place of the previous maximum of 175 km/h (110 mph).
However the plan was doomed from the beginning, since Railtrack had not assessed the technical viability of "moving block signalling" (see the
Railway Signalling page for more details) prior to promising the speed increase to Virgin and the Government. No-one had attempted to implement moving block on a line as complex as the WCML anywhere on the world, and it soon became apparent to engineers that the technology was not mature enough to be used on the line. The bankruptcy of Railtrack in 2001 following the
Hatfield crash brought a reappraisal of the plans whilst the original cost of the upgrade soared. The revised estimates indicate that the cost will £13bn, be ready by 2008 with a maximum speed for tilting trains of a more modest 200
km/h (125
mph). Services from Liverpool to the South West and the South Coast were withdrawn by Virgin in September 2003.
The first phase of the upgrade, south of Manchester, opened on 27 September 2004 with London to Birmingham journey times of 1hr 21mins and London to Manchester 2 hours 6 minutes. The final phase was announced as opening on December 12, 2005, bringing the journey from London to Glasgow to about 4½ hours, [
1] although considerable work such as the quadrupling of the track in the Trent Valley (in progress and moving towards completion under budget), upgrading the slow lines, the second phase of remodelling Nuneaton, and the remodelling of Stafford, Rugby, Milton Keynes and Coventry stations are mostly now progressing. The upgrading of the Crewe to Manchester line via Wilmslow is nearing completion in Summer 2006.
Engineering work began again in late 2005 between Preston and Carlisle. This affected a number of stations; Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, and Penrith. Train services run as normal from Monday to Friday, with a replacement bus service at the weekend between Preston to Carlisle, calling at all the affected stations. From April 2006, train services at the weekend were no longer terminated at Preston, and continued to Oxenholme Lake District where Virgin Trains terminated and this became the starting point for southbound services. The Oxenholme to Carlisle section of line is due to reopen at weekends during the summer of 2006.
New trains for the route include 53 nine-car
Pendolino trains and initially 30 four-car
Desiro electric trains for Silverlink/Central Trains (with more anticipated) as well as Virgin Voyager and Super-Voyager trains for the cross-country services. Pendolino 2005 off-peak frequency of six trains per hour (rising to ten in the morning peak) is planned to increase to nine off-peak by 2009 including three per hour to both Birmingham and Manchester plus an hourly tilting Voyager service to
Chester as well as improved services to Liverpool, Preston and Scotland. There will also be an hourly Desiro operation from London to Crewe serving Watford, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Rugby, Nuneaton,
Atherstone,
Tamworth,
Lichfield,
Rugeley, Stafford and Crewe.
Virgin Trains recently put forward plans to increase the line speed in places on the WCML and particularly on sections of the Trent Valley Line between Stafford and Rugby from 125 mph to 135 mph after the quadrupling of track had been completed. This would permit faster services and possibly allow additional train paths. 135 mph is claimed to be achievable by
Pendolino trains while using existing signalling systems without the need for a
cab signalling system. Network Rail are studying this proposal.
In promoting the above proposal Virgin Trains report that passenger numbers on Virgin West Coast have increased from 13.6 million in 1997/98 to 18.7 million in 2005/6, while numbers on Virgin CrossCountry have grown from 12.6 million to 20.4 million over the same period.
Network Rail, successor from 2001 to Railtrack plc, in its latest business plan published in April 2006, see
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3085.aspx, has divided its National network into 26 'Routes' for planning, maintenance and operational purposes. Although Route 18 is named 'West Coast Main Line' it includes several branch lines that had not previously been considered part of the WCML. Likewise several lines that have traditionally been seen as parts of the WCML, including all the northern terminal sections of the WCML, are incorporated in other 'Routes'.
The cities and towns served by the WCML are listed in the tables below. Stations on loops and branches are marked ** Those stations in
italics are not served by main-line services run by Virgin Trains but only by local trains. Between Euston and Watford Junction the WCML is largely but not exactly parallelled by the operationally independent
Watford DC Line with 17 intermediate stations, including three with additional platforms on the WCML.
The final table retraces the route specifically to indicate the many loops, branches, junctions and interchange stations on Route 18, which is the core of the WCML, with the new 'Route' names for connecting lines.
The North Wales Coast Line from Crewe to Holyhead and the line from Manchester to Preston are not electrified. Services from London to Holyhead and from Manchester to Scotland are mostly operated either by Virgin Super Voyager tilting diesel trains or, in the case of one of the Holyhead services, by a Pendolino set hauled from Crewe by a diesel locomotive.
London to Glasgow and Edinburgh (Network Rail Route 18)
Branches and loops
=Rugby-Birmingham-Wolverhampton-Stafford (Network Rail Route 17)
=
=
=Crewe-Manchester-Preston (Network Rail Route 20)
=
Network Rail Route 18 (WCML) - Branches and Junctions
| Location | Type | Route | Details | | Camden Jnct | Branch | 18 | Watford DC Line (WDCL) |
| + | Junction | 6 | North London Line from Primrose Hill joins WDCL and WCML |
| Willesden Jnct | Junction | 6 | North London Line from West Hampstead joins WDCL and WCML |
| + | Junction | 2 | West London Line from Clapham Junction joins WCML |
| + | Junction | 6 | North London Line from Richmond joins WCML |
| Willesden Junction | Interchange | 6 | North London Line with Watford DC Line |
| Watford Junction | Branch | 18 | Watford DC Line terminates at separate bay platforms |
| + | Branch | 18 | St Albans Branch Line (AC single line single section) to St Albans |
| Bletchley | Branch | 18 | Marston Vale Line to Bedford |
| Bletchley High Level (Denbigh Hall South Jnct) | Branch | 16 | Freight only line to Newton Longville (remnant of mothballed Varsity Line to Oxford) |
| Hanslope Junction | Loop | 18 | Northampton Loop rejoins just south of Rugby |
| Rugby | Junction | 17 | West Midlands Main Line to Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stafford |
| Nuneaton | Junction | 19 | The Birmingham to Peterborough Line from Peterborough |
| + | Junction | 17 | The Coventry to Nuneaton Line |
| + | Junction | 17 | The Birmingham to Peterborough Line to Birmingham |
| Tamworth | Interchange | 17 | The Cross Country Route (MR) Bristol and Birmingham to Derby and the North East |
| Lichfield TV | Interchange | 17 | The Birmingham Cross-City Line Redditch to Lichfield |
| + | Junction | 17 | north of the station |
| Rugeley TV | Junction | 17 | The Chase Line from Birmingham to Rugeley and Stafford |
| Colwich Jnct | Branch | 18 | to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester (Route 20 from Cheadle Hulme) |
| Stafford | Junction | 17 | West Midlands Main Line from Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton |
| Norton Bridge | Branch | 18 | to Stone to join line from Colwich Jnct to Manchester (Route 20 from Cheadle Hulme) |
| Stoke-on-Trent | Junction | 19 | from Derby |
| Kidsgrove | Branch | 18 | to Alsager and Crewe |
| Cheadle Hulme | - | 20 | Route 18 London - Manchester Line becomes Route 20 through to Manchester |
| Crewe | Branch | 18 | from Kidsgrove (diesel service from Skegness, Grantham, Nottingham Derby and Stoke-on-Trent) |
| + | Junction | 14 | The Welsh Marches Line from South Wales, Hereford and Shrewsbury |
| + | Junction | 22 | to Chester and the North Wales Coast Line |
| + | Junction | 20 | to Wilmslow, Manchester Airport, Stockport and Manchester |
| Hartford North | Junction | 20 | (freight only) from Northwich |
| Weaver Jnct | Branch | 18 | Runcorn and Liverpool (Route 20 from Liverpool South Parkway railway station>Liverpool South Parkway) |
| Liverpool South Parkway | - | 20 | Route 18 London to Liverpool Line becomes Route 20 to Liverpool |
| Warrington | Junction | 22 | from Llandudno and Chester to Manchester |
| Winwick Jnct | Junction | 20 | to Liverpool, Earlestown and Manchester |
| Wigan | Junction | 20 | from Manchester |
| + | Junction | 20 | The Liverpool to Wigan Line |
| Euxton Jnct | Junction | 20 | The Manchester to Preston Line from Manchester |
| Farington Jnct | Junction | 20 | Ormskirk Branch Line, East Lancashire Line and Caldervale Line |
| Preston Dock | Junction | 23 | west |
| Preston | Junction | 20 | to Blackpool |
| Morecambe South Jnct | Junction | 23 | to Morecambe |
| Hest Bank Jnct | Junction | 23 | from Morecambe |
| Carnforth Jnct | Junction | 23 | Furness Line to Barrow-in-Furness and also the Airedale Line to Leeds |
| Oxenholme | Junction | 23 | to Windermere |
| Penrith | Junction | 23 | Route 23 uses two junctions to the north of the station |
| Carlisle | Junction | 23 | Route 23 Settle-Carlisle Railway and Route 9 from Newcastle |
| + | Junction | 23 | The Cumbrian Coast Line from Barrow-in-Furness |
| Gretna Jnct | Junction | 26 | to the Glasgow South Western Line |
| Carstairs South Jnct | Junction | 24 | Route 18 West Coast Main Line becomes Route 24 to Edinburgh |
| Carstairs South | - | 26 | Route 18 West Coast Main Line becomes Route 26 to Glasgow |
|
*
East Coast Main Line*
Rail transport in the United Kingdom*
UK topics*
Rail Industry www page which monitors the progress of the project*
Department of Transport - 2006 - West Coast Main Line - Update Report*
Network Rail Business Plans and Reports
