Major Upcoming Improvement Works: 2025 and beyond

Planned improvement work taking place on Britain's Railway

We know that many of our customers are very interested in the improvements we can expect on our railway in the months and years to come.

On this page, we have listed details of some of the short-term and long-term railway projects in the pipeline, together with the work involved by Network Rail and others, and the benefits that we can all expect. We hope this information will whet your appetite, so we have added links to external articles so you can find out more. The information below is intended to compliment and support our future engineering work pages.

Short term midweek blockades

We know there’s never a good time to close the railway and that any cancellation of the daytime Monday to Friday service is likely to cause considerable disruption. However, for some improvement projects, closing the line for a week (or a bit longer for big projects) will get the essential engineering work done much more quickly and efficiently.

Below are some of the key upcoming midweek daytime engineering blockades (which may also include work on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays) taking place over the next couple of months:

Blackheath Tunnel Repair Work

• When is the work taking place? Sunday 18 May to Sunday 27 July

• What is the impact? As Blackheath Tunnel will be closed, no trains will run between Blackheath and Charlton. More information on how this will affect Southeastern services is available from our National Rail Engineering page.

• Tell me more about the work taking place: Network Rail is carrying out essential repairs in the 175-year-old Victorian-era structure as the mile-long Blackheath Tunnel is prone to water damage, which can cause delays. The tunnel is safe but needs major investment to protect it for the future. More information on this project can be found on the Southeastern website.

Replacing the Greek Street bridge in Stockport

• When is the work taking place? Saturday 2 August to Friday 22 August, with further work scheduled until Spring 2026

• What is the impact? The original Greek Street bridge in Stockport, constructed in 1958, has reached the end of its life and needs to be replaced. From 2 to 23 August 2025, the railway will be closed through Stockport so the replacement work can continue. The bridge is on the Manchester spur of the West Coast Main Line, and sees about 400 passenger and 50 freight services passing under it each day, so considerable disruption is expected. More information on how this will affect services is available from our National Rail Engineering page.

• Tell me more about the work taking place: The closure of the railway through Stockport will allow Network Rail to demolish the current Greek Street bridge structure, which consists of about 200 concrete beams, and install a new bridge. More information on this project, together with explanatory photos and videos, can be found on the Network Rail website.

Longer Term Railway Improvement Projects

High Speed Two (HS2)

Once operational, HS2’s British-built bullet trains will provide zero-carbon journeys between the UK’s two largest cities, Birmingham and London, with services continuing on to Manchester, the North West and Scotland using the conventional railway network, cutting journey times.

Trains will run on the new lines at speeds of up to 225 mph. Each train will be 400 metres long and will carry up to 1,100 customers. There will be up to 14 trains per hour in each direction.

Twice the length of Crossrail, HS2 is the first new intercity railway to be built north of London in over a century. Construction of the line is well underway, with 30,000 jobs supported by the project and over 3,200 UK-based businesses helping to build it.

Comprising 140-miles of track, four new state-of-the art stations, two depots, 32 miles of tunnel, and 130 bridges, HS2 will leave a legacy of environmentally responsible travel, economic regeneration and technological innovation for generations to come.

More details on this project are available here.

East West Rail

The communities between Cambridge and Oxford currently suffer from a lack of east-west transport options, to link their vibrant communities, universities and businesses.​​​​​​​ East West Rail is a major infrastructure project which will deliver these much-needed connections. It will bring faster journey times and lower transport costs, easing pressure on local roads.

The East West Rail line already has its first part in place following construction work between Oxford and Bicester.

Further services will be introduced in three 'Connection Stages':

Connection Stage 1: Oxford to Bletchley and Milton Keynes. The project began by rebuilding the Bletchley flyover back in 2021. Since then 66 kilometres of new track has been laid, plus the installation of signalling, testing and the construction of Winslow station. Passenger services between Oxford, Oxford Parkway, Bicester, Winslow, Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central are due to start during 2025 and will be operated by Chiltern Railways.

Connection Stage 2: Oxford to Bedford. This will involve an upgrade of the existing Marston Vale line between Bletchley and Bedford. It has been announced that work on the Marston Vale Line will be accelerated in order to accommodate one train per hour between Oxford and Bedford from 2030.

Connection Stage 3: Oxford to Cambridge.  Early planning is underway for the final section between Bedford and Cambridge, which will cross the East Coast Main Line.

More details on this exciting rail development can be found on the East West Rail website.

South Wales Metro

Work has started on Metro, a modern integrated public transport which will transform travel in South Wales. Construction, engineering and infrastructure work is underway to upgrade the rail network so that it’s ready for Metro.

Work involves:

• electrifying around 170km of track

• upgrading all the stations and signalling in the Metro network

• building at least two new stations.

The railway lines to Aberdare, Coryton, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhymney and Treherbert are being upgraded. These lines are also known as the Core Valleys Lines and they’ll become an important part of the South Wales Metro.

Details of the disruption being caused by the transformation work can be found on the Transport for Wales website.

Transpennine Route Upgrade

The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a major, multi-billion-pound programme of railway improvements which will bring better journeys to passengers travelling across the Pennines between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.

TRU will transform the Transpennine main line into a high-performing, reliable railway, bringing more frequent, more reliable, faster, greener trains. The size of the project does mean that there will be planned disruption to services so the work can be delivered.

The benefits will include:

• Faster journeys - the fastest journey times are forecast to be 63-66 minutes between Manchester and York and 41-42 minutes between Manchester and Leeds

• Greener travel - the whole route will be electrified to enable greener trains to run, reducing the carbon footprint and improving air quality

• More reliable journeys - the railway will be made more reliable by re-modelling track, installing a new signalling system and upgrading bridges to bring you smoother, on-time journeys

• Better stations - improving stations on the Transpennine route, bringing you a better travel experience through improved, more accessible stations

• More trains - the improvements will enable more trains to run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York with up to six fast services every hour between Leeds and Manchester and up to two stopping services for local connectivity

More details on this amazing rail development can be found on the Transpennine Route Upgrade website.

All Planned Engineering Work

Details of all the planned engineering work (including other midweek work as well as at weekends and overnight) for approximately the next 12 weeks is available on our Status and Disruptions page. Use the calendar to search for the dates you want to travel.