Werrington Dive Under

Werrington Dive Under (also known as the Werrington Grade Separation) is a replacement dual track grade separated railway junction  north of  railway station in Cambridgeshire, England. The current junction leads to the Great Northern/Great Eastern Joint line (GN/GE) which goes through  to  and beyond. Due to be completed in 2021, the dive under will allow trains on the west side of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) to access the GN/GE line without conflicting with the faster passenger services on the ECML.

Current junction
When the line closed between  and Spalding in 1982,instead of cutting across the western edge of the Fens and avoiding Peterborough station, freight traffic was diverted through it. Freight traffic therefore now has to use the current junction for access to/from the GN/GE line. The current junction is located  north of Peterborough railway station. In order to use the junction, freight trains have to cross the lines used by the fast ECML passenger services on the level and in the case of trains to Spalding, also use the Up Fast line for 3 miles between Peterborough station and the junction. This can cause delay to fast passenger trains.

Railtrack, Network Rail's predecessor, recognised that the ECML was congested and so upgraded the GN/GE line to accommodate the heavy container trains to and from the east coast ports. However Werrington junction was still a significant bottleneck.

Proposed junction
In 2016, Network Rail submitted a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) to the Secretary of State for Transport to build either a flyover or a dive-under the fast lines north of Peterborough to allow freight trains to access all lines without impacting upon other faster services. In summer 2018, Chris Grayling approved the order after a public inquiry favoured the dive-under option over the flyover. Initially, costings were estimated to be in the region of £100 million; but the agreed cost on approval was £200 million.

The project will see the construction of  of new line that will run underneath the fast lines, culverting works on Marholm Brook and the movement of the  lines  westwards over the culverted brook. This will mean that freight trains no longer need to cross the fast lines on the level, nor use the Up Fast line between Peterborough station and the junction. The project, coupled with other ECML improvement schemes (such as the four tracking from  to Woodwalton) will improve capacity on the line through Peterborough by 33% according to Network Rail. This equates to two extra train paths an hour by 2021, when the work is scheduled to be completed.

The Spalding and Peterborough Transport Forum claimed that increasing the number of freight trains operating through Spalding would cause the level crossing barriers in the town to be down for 24 minutes of every hour. The Campaign for Better Transport praised the works and stated

See also
Hitchin Flyover - a flyover at Hitchin to alleviate traffic problems in accessing the Cambridge line north of Hitchin
Nuneaton North Chord - a flyover on the West Coast Main Line at Nuneaton constructed for similar reasons

References

External links
Network Rail news release with computer generated video of the new line
TWAO government documents

Category:Rail junctions in England
Category:Rail transport in Cambridgeshire
Category:Tunnels in Cambridgeshire
Category:Peterborough
Category:East Coast Main Line