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West Coast Main Line

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The WCML running alogside the M1 motorway in Northamptonshire

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 also takes in other important towns and cities including Milton Keynes, Northampton, Rugby, Nuneaton, Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe, Warrington, Wigan, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle.


History

The line was built in parts between the 1830s and the 1870s, with the first parts being the Grand Junction Railway (Warrington - Birmingham) and the London and Birmingham Railway, both completed in the 1830s. The line came mostly under the control of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1846, and later the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1922. In 1947 it came under control of British Rail until privatisation in 1996.

Because of the need to appease the concerns and anger of landowners along the route, very often the line was built so that it dodged huge swathes of farmland, resulting in many curves and bends. The WCML also passes through some of the more hilly areas of the British mainland, such as the Trent Valley, the mountains of Cumbria and the Leadhills area of southern Lanarkshire. This has left a legacy of lower maximum speeds on the line compared to the East Coast 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. Services from Liverpool to the South West and the South Coast were withdrawn by Virgin in September 2003.

The WCML is not a single railway; although its main "spine" runs between Glasgow and London, the WCML includes loops which branch off it to serve Manchester, one via Stoke-on-Trent and one via Crewe, then back to the main line at Preston. There is also a loop which serves Northampton. There are also branches from Crewe to Liverpool and Rugby to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and then back to the WCML at Stafford.

A Class 87 on the WCML in Warwickshire

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 a few years later; the line from Weaver Junction (where the route to Liverpool diverges) to Glasgow was electrified in 1974. It is currently undergoing a major upgrade along almost its entire length. The original plans 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. After a series of setbacks, in particular the bankruptcy of Railtrack, the revised estimates indicate that the cost will £10bn, be ready by 2008 with a maximum speed for tilting trains of 200 km/h (125 mph) instead of the originally planned 225 km/h (140 mph), in place of the previous maximum of 175 km/h (110 mph). 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. 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, upgrading the slow lines, the second phase of remodelling Nuneaton, and the remodelling of Stafford, Rugby, and Coventry stations was still planned and yet to be done.

The route in detail

The cities and towns served by the WCML are listed below. Those stations in italics are not part of the main-line services run by Virgin Trains, receiving only local trains. They are located, however, on the line itself.

London to Crewe

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference 		Branches and loops
London London Euston TQ295827
Watford Watford Junction TQ109973
Apsley Apsley TL080019
Kings Langley Kings Langley TL062048
Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead TL042059
Berkhamsted Berkhamstead SP993081
Tring Tring SP950122
Cheddington Cheddington SP922185
Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard SP910250
Bletchley (in Milton Keynes) Bletchley SP868337
Milton Keynes (central area) Milton Keynes Central SP841380 Northampton Loop (Lines diverge beyond Wolverton)
Wolverton (in Milton Keynes) Wolverton SP820414
Rugby Rugby SP511759 Northampton Loop
Trent Valley Line
Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford
Stafford Stafford SJ918229 Trent Valley Line
Rugby-Birmingham-Wolverhampton-Stafford
Stafford-Stoke-Manchester
Crewe Crewe SJ711546

Branches and loops

Northampton Loop

The line diverges from the direct line beyond Wolverton
and merges again after Long Buckby, before Rugby.

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

Trent Valley Line

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

Rugby-Birmingham-Wolverhampton-Stafford

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

Stafford-Stoke-Manchester

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

Crewe to Glasgow and Edinburgh

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference 		Branches and loops
Crewe Crewe SJ711546 Crewe-Holyhead (North Wales Coast Line)
Crewe-Liverpool
Crewe-Manchester-Preston
Warrington Warrington Bank Quay SJ599878
Wigan Wigan North Western SD581053
Preston Preston SD534290 Crewe-Manchester-Preston
Lancaster Lancaster SD471617
Oxenholme (Kendal) Oxenholme Lake District SD531901
Penrith Penrith NY511299
Carlisle Carlisle NY402554
Lockerbie Lockerbie NY137817
Then either
Motherwell Motherwell NS750572
Glasgow Glasgow Central NS587651
or
Haymarket Haymarket NT239731
Edinburgh Edinburgh Waverley NT257738

Branches and loops

Crewe-Holyhead (North Wales Coast Line)

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

Crewe-Liverpool

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

Crewe-Manchester-Preston

Town/City Station Ordnance Survey
grid reference

See also

External links

Rail Industry www page which monitors the progress of the project

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