Christmas Transport Catastrophe!

A catastrophic disaster unparalleled in the history of transport unravelled itself towards the tail end of 2025. This threatens to ruin every little boy’s Christmas. Or does it?

In fits and starts from the end of December 2024 to mid-January 2026, the rest of the world will be cut off from the extreme hard ultra-far north west of England. Is this such a bad thing? Every cloud has a silver lining. Read on.

Exiting Lune Gorge, West Coast Mainline (WCML) railway passes under the M6 at Tebay on its 1/75 grade ascent of Shap summit, 260 miles (ish) north of London Euston. It passes over the M6 at Little Strickland, just past Shap village on the 1/125 grade descent towards Carlisle.

Then, five miles later, the railway goes over the M6 at Clifton as the notorious Clifton and Lowther curves unwind for the approach to Penrith. This railway bridge, Clifton Bridge, needs to be replaced, necessitating the temporary closure of both the M6 and the West Coast line.

When demolished, it will be replaced by a new £60m structure installed in its place. This will be 427ft long, weigh 4,200 tons and replace a 60-year-old crossing built when the M6 first headed north. Yes, as big as a frigate. Yes, being assembled in fields next to the motorway right now, and yes, you can see it from outer space.

The old one has weight restrictions, meaning it can only carry one train at a time. This can cause delays, whereas the new bridge will allow freight and passenger trains to pass over the motorway simultaneously and without limits.

Rosario Barcena, of the Skanska construction firm, informed the local newspaper, “The bridge has been built on schedule and our preparatory work for the removal of the current structure and installation of the new one is nearing completion.”

In a sign of the times, whereas local companies such as Eden Construction and John Laing (both now defunct) were used for the original construction of the motorway, the new work is being done by a Scandinavian outfit.

Their more high-profile projects include London’s Gherkin (which old people like me recall as the Swiss Re building), the bridges and tunnels over the Øresund between Denmark and Sweden (which old people like me recall as a ferry between Helginsborg and Helsingor), and the World Trade Centre Oculus, which old people like me don’t understand.

The closure will affect both directions of the M6 between junctions 39 and 40 from 8 pm each Friday to 5 am each Monday during the first two weekends of January 2026. Steve Mason, programme delivery manager at National Highways, informs us,

“We are working hard on a traffic management plan which will keep diverted traffic out of local villages and ensure everyone sticks to the official diversion routes. At the same time we want to ensure local people and services can access their own communities and experience as little disruption as possible.”

A traffic management plan includes three main diversion routes to keep through-traffic moving while minimising the impact on nearby communities. Oh. Northbound drivers will use the A6 from junction 39 and rejoin the M6 at junction 40 via Kemplay roundabout. Ah.

Southbound HGVs will leave the M6 at junction 40 and travel to Scotch Corner via the eastbound A66 before joining the A1(M). Right.

Other southbound vehicles will be diverted along the eastbound A66 to Brough, then onto the southbound A685 before rejoining the M6 at junction 38 at Tebay. Hmm.

All very complicated, but what kind of sad fool wants to travel by road anyway? As ever, the iron way beckons.

Sections of the West Coast line will be shut down, but it is still doable through train diversions and replacement buses. From 1 to 7 January, buses will replace trains between Carlisle and Dumfries/Lockerbie. Passengers travelling to Scotland from London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester will be advised to go via the East Coast Mainline using operators other than Avanti West Coast.

Rail replacement buses will also be deployed for those travelling to and from Lancaster, Oxenholme and Penrith. Some southern section services will start and terminate at Lancaster, and the rest at Preston.

That silver lining consists of the diversionary route being via the Settle and Carlisle line, a historic route that will be used by mainline high-speed scheduled trains for the first time in more than a decade.

Avanti West Coast say its services will use the 73-mile line, which crosses the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines via the Ribblehead viaduct, which offers miles of picturesque views from train windows. The route is usually only used by Northern trains operating diesel units (think glorified buses on rails) between Leeds and Carlisle and the occasional charter.

The line is not electrified, so the operator will use its bi-mode Evero Class 805 trains, which can run on electric or diesel power and are usually used from Euston to Holyhead, with the non-electrified section from Crewe to Holyhead under diesel power.

The timetable for the 7th 9th January 2026 shows a two hourly service in each direction:

Carlisle	07:26	09:23	11:27	13:21	15:22	18:05
Preston	09:45	11:45	13:47	15:46	17:43	20:42
Wolverhampton						22:05

And in the down direction:

New St		06:05
Crewe	04:59	07:08	09:00
Preston	05:53	08:07	10:07	12:07	14:07	16:06	18:07
Carlisle	08:15	10:46	12:30	14:27	16:28	18:32	20:32

For brevity, intermediate stops have been omitted. Note, none of these are between Preston and Carlisle. Also, some services are nicely timed to connect with trains heading further north or south.

As every Puffin knows, sunrise in the Debatable Lands on 8th January 2026 is at 8:33 and sunset at 16:04, so it is possible to have a trip out and back through the interesting bits in daylight.Might this be a nice Christmas present for the wife of a long-suffering little boy who likes trains? Especially if travelling first class? It might just! Shhhh, don’t spoil the surprise.

The engineering department informs me the 805 units are called ‘Evero’ because EV is short for electric vehicle, and Vero means truth in Italian. I see. Daft names for new trains is a topic for another article; suffice it to say one yearns for the days when such things were descriptive of form or purpose – Electic Scots, Deltics, even the tilting (swinging?) Pendolinos.

In August, Avanti West Coast ran a trial using a 10-carriage Evero train (two five-car units combined) on the route as part of their planning and preparations ahead of the January works. The diversions will require seven Class 805s. On 5-6 January, six 805s will operate from Preston to Carlisle with buses north to Lockerbie.

Between 7 and 14 January, the WCML remains closed north of Preston, meaning six 805s will operate diversions, again with one train running every two hours.The 20 August test was crewed by Avanti West Coast staff with DB Cargo UK (as it’s used as a freight route) conducting the train from Preston to Carlisle.

One assumes the services will run from Carlisle to Settle then join the Carnforth-Leeds line as far as Hellifield. After swinging off the Leeds via the curve at Helifield, the Ribble Valley line is joined. This heads south west to Clitheroe, whose big hole in the ground is the origin of the famous Clitheroe to Gunnie cement train.

Then to Blackburn (fingers crossed we don’t stop there) and thence on the East Lancashire line (Colne-Preston) as far as Farrington Junction, where we join the West Coast Mainline and by which point we’re only about 2 miles south of Preston station.

I saw ‘we’ because I’ve booked it: first class, obviously. An article will follow (to make it a tax-deductible business expense as well as Mrs AWS’s Christmas present).

At first glance, first class in the Class 805 looks a bit naff. There are only 25 seats, with at least one of them beside a blank wall rather than a window. In a 2+1 layout, all but two of the ones don’t face each other with a table between, but are single file airline-style. I’ve managed to reserve this for the way back, but on the way down myself and Mrs AWS will have to make new friends at a table for four.

There is a kitchen area but, ominously, the tickets say ‘complimentary food’ rather than including food, so we might not get fed. There is an Evero menu on the North Wales route which looks promising. Fingers crossed.

I must say, despite being a dour Cumbrian type, I’m really looking forward to this. Caveat: When I dread something, it usually goes very well, when I’m excited about something, it oft goes horribly wrong.

To be continued…
 

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