The Department for Transport has unveiled plans for a £17.2 million new railway station in Warrington. It is among five new stations to be built across England and Wales as the Government invests more than £16m in schemes under the new stations fund.
The DfT will contribute £4.23m towards the new station Warrington West in Cheshire, which will have two platforms and a 268-space car park.
Other stations are being built as part of the project are at Horden Peterlee in County Durham, Ceredigion in Wales, Green Park, Reading in Berkshire and near Bristol.
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Details of Phase One for High Speed Rail 2 have been revealed by the government, who also confirmed plans for the line to be extended to the North-West, East Midlands and Yorkshire.
Phase one consists of two stages, first of which involves design and construction preparation, which is already underway. Stage 2, which is set to commence in 2019, will see the main body of construction work take place, delivering tunnels, bridges, viaducts and embankments for the new London to Birmingham line. Phase One is due for completion in 2026.
Contracts for the two stages of phase One are worth an estimated £6.6bn and are expected to directly support 16,000 jobs. According to the government, the project will also present 7,000 contract opportunities in the supply chain, of which about 60% should go to SME’s.
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Spanish train manufacturer, Construcciones Y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) announced that it is to open a £30m production factory in Newport, South Wales.
The new facility, on the old Llanwern Steelworks site, is set to employ 200 people when it opens, rising to 300 by 2019.
CAF who had previously provided trains for the Heathrow express, is bidding for the new London underground trains and has confirmed interest to tender for the HS2-high speed line, and has also supplied trains to Edinburgh and Birmingham.