North West Route
Our Region
Our North West & Central region runs from London Euston and Marylebone in the south through the Chiltern and West Midlands regions, the North West of England, and Cumbria before joining with Scotland at Gretna. We are home to the West Coast Mainline, the busiest mixed-use railway in Europe, serving London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
We’re a very busy region, with 1.3 million passengers travelling on our rails every weekday, and 700,000 tonnes of freight moved a week. With 571 stations in the North West & Central region, we make up a quarter of Britain’s railway system.
We are committed to transforming the North West & Central region into a customer-focused service organisation, putting passengers first. We will prioritise safe, reliable train services against the ongoing need to build a bigger, better railway capable of transporting more people and produce in the future.
Our Route
The North West route runs from Cheshire in the south, to Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Cumbria in the North. As well as connecting commuters between the two Northern Powerhouse cities of Liverpool and Manchester, we also carry tourists to destinations including Blackpool and the Lake District. Our key railway lines on the North West route are the West Coast Mainline from Crewe to Carlisle, and the Pan Railway from Manchester to Liverpool
Across the route, the rail industry is working together more closely than ever to deliver what passengers really want – a reliable railway, timely information, clean stations, and enough trains. Since 2012, work has been ongoing as part of the Great North Rail Project to upgrade key lines and stations in our region.
Key Stations
We own and manage both Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly. Between them, these two stations serve over 40 million passengers each year!
Our Projects
Crewe Hub
Crewe station is a key transport hub, providing connectivity for passenger and freight services to all areas of the country. We’re planning to enhance passenger experience and to rejuvenate the economy by improving the train service available.
We’ve worked with Cheshire East Council, HS2 Ltd, and the Department for Transport to develop the Crewe hub proposal, which aims to provide more capacity, better connectivity, more resilience, and improved facilities at the station. The benefits of these plans could be felt far beyond Crewe to all of the connecting routes and locations served.
Transpennine Route Upgrade
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a multi-billion pound, transformative, long-term railway infrastructure programme that will improve connectivity in the North, with major investment being made to our railway between York and Manchester via Leeds and Huddersfield.
As part of the TRU, we’re improving a number of stations, adding platforms, increasing services, and improving accessibility, meaning that more passengers can use our railway, and can get to their destinations faster.
Our Improvements
The Great North Rail Project (GNRP), part of Britain’s Railway Upgrade Plan, is a vast programme of improvements to transform train travel for customers in the North. The project will enable 2,000 extra services each week, and allow 40,000 more passengers to travel each day. More trains with more seats, running more quickly and more reliably.
The GNRP will improve connections and shorten journey times between key towns and cities, as well as enabling quieter, cleaner, and greener trains through electrifying our railway.
As new opportunities, including jobs, are created and businesses get access to a greater pool of talent, local communities and the wider regional economy will feel the knock-on benefits of FNRP, boosting regional and national growth.