£250m rail overhaul making tracks in Stafford
New railway tracks are being laid in Stafford – in the latest stage of a £250 million development aimed at speeding up services through the county.
Network Rail has now started on a new 10km section of railway line at Norton Bridge. It is hoped it will ease a bottleneck on the existing network.
A total of 10 new bridge structures are being built and another strengthened.
Once finished, the improvements will help with the reliability and capacity of both passenger and freight trains, with new timetables planned for next year.
The first stage of the work was to lay 1.5km of tracks from the new siding created at Little Bridgeford to 1km north of Searchlight Lane. Staffordshire Alliance manager Matt Clark said: "It's great to see the track going in and the site really taking shape after all the hard work that has taken place.
"We're making great progress at Norton Bridge and it's satisfying to know our work will deliver greater performance and reliability for passengers and the capability to run more train services."
Machines on the site can lay up to 590 ft of track each hour, transporting new sleepers from trailing wagons.
The sleepers are then placed onto the track bed before a new rail is run through a series of rollers and then clipped into the sleepers.
