23,780 man hours later .. historic Northamptonshire railway tunnel's makeover is finished

Engineers spent a combined 23,870 giving a historic Northamptonshire railway tunnel a long-overdue makeover.

Kilsby Tunnel, between Crick and Kilsby, was starting to show its age 183 years after Victorians dug through 1½ miles of high ground between Rugby and Northampton to build it in 1837.

Leaks caused flooding, speed restrictions and delays to the 400 passenger and freight trains using one of Europe's busiest mixed-use railway lines in Europe every day.

But two weeks of intensive labour by Network Rail meant refurbishment work was finished bang on time on Monday (May 18) and 110mph express services are charging through on the West Coast Mainline once again.

It also gave photographers the chance to produce some stunning photos of a few of the 30million bricks and views INSIDE the tunnel which are usually just a black blur for passengers.

The 14-day blockade while work was carried out is thought to be longest period the tunnel has been closed since trains started running through and was only possible because of the cutbacks in services during the Covid-19 crisis.

Gus Dunster, executive director of operations at Avanti West Coast — whose passenger trains use the tunnel — said: “The railway between Rugby and Milton Keynes is notoriously difficult to maintain due to the number of trains that use it every day.

“This scale of work would usually take months of careful planning but working together with industry colleagues we were able to do this in a matter of days because of our reduced timetable.

“It’s a great achievement in unprecedented circumstances and we would like to say thanks for the patience of everyone who has travelled with us over the last two weeks. The works will deliver a long-term benefit – improving reliability for millions of customers across the West Coast Main Line when we look forward to welcoming them back in the future.”

Engineers replaced nearly a mile of track and laid 2,458 new concrete sleepers to finish the project.

Avanti West Coast reckon that removing the speed restrictions with save their services a total of 82 minutes in delays every day.

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