£14.7m upgrade planned for Carlisle station

Carlisle station will have a £14.7m makeover as part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan.

Eight of the platforms will be rebuilt, and an updated roof will also help to make the station much brighter.

The work will significantly extend the life of the station’s roof structure, which dates back to 1847, as well as reducing the amount of maintenance it will need. The existing roof covering will be replaced with one made from ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene), the same material used for the roofs of the new Manchester Victoria and Birmingham New Street stations.

New surfaces and tactile paving to mark the edges will make the platforms safer for passengers.

Network Rail has worked closely with Historic England the local authority (which is Carlisle City Council) to plan the refurbishment while protecting the station’s listed building status.

Virgin Trains, which operates the station, has been consulted throughout to accommodate the work with the minimum amount of impact on passengers. No train services will be affected and all areas of work will take place in safely hoarded areas.

"Carlisle station is impressive and historic but its large roof is showing its age and is in need of significant repair. This investment will protect it for decades to come.

Together with the improved platforms, the station’s environment will be much more pleasant for passengers and provide them with a better start or end to their journeys." Terry Strickland, area director for Network Rail

"Carlisle railway station is an iconic building in the city, and I am pleased that it will undergo a refurbishment that will not only upgrade the appearance of the inside of the station, but make rail travel safer for passengers." John Stevenson, MP for Carlisle

Work will start on site on 30 November and the roof refurbishment will take up to 15 months to complete. Work on the platforms will start once the roof is finished and is due to be completed in February 2018.

While the roof is being replaced a full scaffold ‘crash-deck’ will be installed – this will reduce the amount of natural light in the station, but will allow the works to be carried out safely. Temporary lighting will be used throughout the work.

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing £38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.