THE boss of the new Northern Rail franchise says that the Cumbrian Coast Line needs a major upgrade before the Moorside nuclear power station project starts.
Arriva took over the Northern franchise this month. Its routes include the line from Carlisle to Lancaster via Barrow.
Managing director Alex Hynes admits that the railway lacks the capacity to cope with the extra traffic that construction of a nuclear power station will bring. NuGen wants to build three reactors at Moorside in West Cumbria between 2020 and 2026.
Some 21,000 jobs will be created over the life of the project – with peak on-site employment estimated at 6,000 – many of them using the railway to get to Sellafield.
Mr Hynes said: “Are we ready for Moorside? At the moment the answer is 'no'. That's why we need a plan, because the railway cannot absorb that level of traffic. We need to upgrade the infrastructure first.
“I've got a meeting coming up with NuGen to discuss this.”
He added: “A lot of the route has manually-operated signalling – automatic signalling would help – and some of the single-line sections [such as that between Sellafield and St Bees] need to be upgraded to double track."
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