A new fuelling and servicing facility has been installed by Northern at Barrow-In-Furness Light Maintenance Depot (LMD).
The new facility is essential in order for Northern to operate six-car Class 195 trains between Cumbria and Manchester Airport and enables capacity to be doubled and improves reliability along the route.
The new 75m servicing road means that up to three carriages can be serviced and re-fuelled simultaneously, improving on the previous one carriage at a time service capacity.
Alongside the new servicing road, a steel canopy has been constructed to provide shelter for staff and to house new equipment.
Chris Jackson, regional director at Northern said: “I would like to thank everyone involved in this project for their hard work, including the support provided by our engineering team.
“The new facilities have meant that trains are able to be serviced faster, keeping them out in-service for our customers – improving reliability for the region and beyond. Of the 3,000 new services a week introduced in our December 2022 timetable, 2,000 were in the North West. With this uplift, there was a need for a facility equal to that growth.”
Craig Wood, project manager at Northern said: “This project was delivered to very tight timescale's and was made possible by a truly collaborative approach by all stakeholders.
Our delivery partner, Northern’s engineering and facilities team together with our project team worked closely together to implement innovative ideas to ensure that the project was delivered to schedule."
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