MEETING WITH NETWORK RAIL 20 Feb 2026 with HANNAH CLARKE and ROB BOLTON
If you’ve tried to drive through Stockport for the last year, you’ve faced endless Diversion signs. And in the week we met, you couldn’t have travelled by train to Manchester Piccadilly either, as most of the station was closed for engineering work – and it was half-term, as one irate member pointed out. “Couldn’t have been at a worse time.” But … “We know when the lines are busiest,” our guest was able to answer, “and it’s not in a February holiday week, when kids and teachers and parents are less likely to travel.”
The good-natured exchange demonstrated the dilemma facing our extensive 200-year-old railway network, and those tasked with running and maintaining it. Every stoppage has knock-on effects, whether planned (essential repairs) or unplanned (a breakdown, something on the line, even a threatened or actual suicide). The heavily-used system has little spare capacity, and that’s especially true up north, where most routes are double lines only; near London there are more likely to be four tracks abreast giving more leeway to reroute trains around trouble. But not here, where the lines into Manchester are the busiest in Europe.
So we were delighted to welcome Hannah Clarke, whose official title is “Sponsor” on the West Coast Main Line running through our area and up to Carlisle. That means she is involved in engaging with all concerned (“what we used to call stakeholders”) when a major development is under way, and has done this job at Stockport station over the £20 million Greek Street bridge and roundabout replacement. Born and bred in Stockport, Hannah started out with a sports degree and PGCE expecting to be a PE teacher, but on discovering that was not for her, worked instead for Asda and Homebase and enjoyed the public engagement. Then she answered an ad, and for five years was a station manager at Manchester Piccadilly.
She showed us pictures and videos of what’s been going on. Stockport station is one of the oldest on the network, dating from the 1840s; the five-way Greek St roundabout is also a massive bridge over all the lines coming through the station, where over 400 passenger trains and another 50 freight services travel every day. The latest bridge dated from 1958 and was reaching the end of its life. They looked at many options, but “The best value for money and the most efficient choice in the long run was to replace the whole thing, and future proof it hopefully for 120 years,” she said. Planning took two years, including engagement with local businesses and schools, with traffic management and utilities and the anxious public. The engineering works were done under contract by Murphy’s. Road closures began on 31st March 2025, and are due to end shortly (the website says 26 March 2026).
Stockport station was closed for three weeks in August 2025 when round-the-clock work began. The old roadway was removed – that was some headache, as unknown pipework and wiring surfaced in the old structures, “more than 40 hidden services” installed over the decades. The new bridge was then painstakingly assembled with much of its huge crossbeams and other integral parts having been manufactured in Dublin, brought over by ship and stored at Trafford Park. Some 736,000 man-hours were worked in the 21 days, but “there were no accidents or other incidents.” Over that 3-week period it sounded as if Hannah didn’t get much sleep! Massive cranes swung girders as if they were matchsticks over the Stockport skyline; you can see how it was done at:
https://www.networkrail.co.uk/our-work/our-routes/north-west/greek-street-bridge-replacement/
Now the station is operating again, and above it services like traffic lights and street lights are being replaced and finally landscaping is under way. They won’t re-open the streets till they’re certain there will be no ongoing niggles or problems. Then Hannah will move on to other projects near Carlisle and Preston. What a fascinating job!
The same could be said of Rob Bolton’s role in Network Rail. His official title is Regional Director (Investment) for the North-West and Central regions, so he covers the Chiltern Main Line as well as the West Coast Line. He is their strategy manager, so while Hannah is on the management team on existing projects, his job is more wide-ranging. Rob has been with Network Rail for nearly 17 years, starting at King’s Cross, Victoria and Paddington stations; he read physics at university and has an MBA from Imperial College. He noted wryly that our Business Club doesn’t do politics, and that’s in part because the timeline of most governments is too short for the long-term investment decisions needed for infrastructure, including how to keep our railways in good shape. On top of that, reorganisations like renationalization and the creation of Great British Railways have been announced, but details are less clear. The repeated failure to electrify the Midland Main Line is an example of that short-termism; the disaster of HS2 shows how badly things can go awry.
“HS2 was about capacity for us,” Rob explained, “as the network is very busy and pretty much full. With fast trains on new lines, HS2 would then have been an enormous opportunity to develop local services on existing lines.” There isn’t space for any more trains coming into Manchester – a few spare seats on some trains, that’s all. Whatever is decided has knock-on effects elsewhere; for example, it might be possible to run more than three trains an hour between Euston and Manchester, but that would diminish services to Birmingham and Liverpool. “We are constantly pushing the boundaries of more trains versus performance,” he said – and with no slack, one delayed train can foul up the whole network (I’ve sat on a train outside Euston for five hours after a “jumper” at Kentish Town – with trains backing up in front and behind). The Stockport infrastructure “is really, really old,”, so as new rolling stock comes in, the need to renew assets becomes ever more urgent; there is constant investment where the programmes are “incredibly intrusive.”
The current big job round here, costing £7.9m, is to replace the 60-year-old track and signalling in the 6-line “Piccadilly corridor” hence February’s 9-day closure of that station, soon to be followed by the closure of Oxford Street in the heart of the city. That’ll be popular… ”Phased work is in the pipeline from now to 2030,” but the horizon is much longer than that, with investment in new rolling stock a 30-year project. Let’s applaud the fact that over £400m is being spent, upgrading signalling and rails to give more reliable and smoother journeys plus greater resilience in future. It’s the largest upgrade to the West Coast Main Line for over half a century, with many planned closures from Milton Keynes to Preston during this April alone. You have been warned.
The most recent government announcements in January were about improvements across the Pennines. Northern Powerhouse Rail will see upgrades to lines between Leeds, York, Bradford and Sheffield in the 2030s, plus a promised new route between Liverpool and Manchester after that, and better connections to Manchester in later phases. “We need to reclaim credibility on big schemes again.”
Questions were asked about the fuel for engines.. and here is a muddle of clashing intentions. No new electrification, but no money for diesel either; Rob says they’re now looking at hybrids to replace the reliable but dirty old DMUs, so we will get heavier trains, but little environmental gain. The advent of regional mayors however offers openings – the Mayor of London has authorised and pays for all-night passenger services (they cannot make a profit) but so far that hasn’t happened here, reducing the attraction of rail travel for Manchester’s night-time economy. That could change.
We could have talked for hours, and are really grateful for this glimpse into one of the most complex businesses in this country with all its problems and opportunities.