The Trent Valley line was opened in 1847 to give a more direct route from London to the
North West of England, bypassing the existing route via
Birmingham built by the
Grand Junction Railway and the
London and Birmingham Railway a decade earlier. The contractor for the of double-track line was the London Railway Contractors Partnership of
Thomas Brassey,
John Stephenson and William MacKenzie. The engineers were
Robert Stephenson (no relation to John),
George Parker Bidder and
Thomas Longridge Gooch and the architect was
John William Livock. Construction was initially started by an independent company, the
Trent Valley Railway (TVR), which was established in Manchester in April 1844. Its act of incorporation, the
Trent Valley Railway Act 1845, received
royal assent on 21 July 1845. Construction of the line commenced in November 1845, the first sod being cut ceremonially at Tamworth by Sir
Robert Peel on 13 November. In September 1845
Salford-born 26-year-old
Edward Watkin was appointed secretary, and having entered the railway world via the TVR he later went on to become one of Britain's most prominent railway barons. Whilst under construction, the TVR was bought by the
London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) on 15 April 1846, the L&BR itself amalgamating with other railways to form the
London and North Western Railway (LNWR) on 16 July 1846. The largest single engineering feature of the line was the
Shugborough Tunnel near Stafford. The Trent Valley line was opened to a limited service of local passenger trains and through goods trains on 15 September 1847, to local goods trains on 20 October 1847 (the delay due to the goods-handling facilities at the stations not being completed) and finally to all through traffic on 1 December 1847. It is now part of what is called the West Coast Main Line. The line was originally built with two tracks, but growing traffic meant that several stretches were widened to
four tracks between 1871 and 1909. Work started in 2004, and access roads were built on the eastern side of the line. Substantial earthworks were carried out and 37 bridges were replaced. A
level crossing at
Hademore was replaced by two road bridges in early 2007. The four-track railway between Lichfield North and Armitage was brought into use on 29 May 2008. Concurrently, Lichfield Trent Valley
signal box was closed and within a month had been demolished. On 8 September the same year, the four-track railway between Tamworth and Lichfield came into use and Tamworth signal box closed. Additionally, the line between
Rugby and
Brinklow, formerly three tracks, was quadrupled on 27 May 2008. The line from Brinklow to Nuneaton remains three tracks. A section north-west of Colwich Junction, which passes through the Shugborough Tunnel, remains double track. As well as the civil engineering works, the whole of the Trent Valley line has been
resignalled. The work was completed in September 2008, at a cost of around £350 million. File:Trent Valley works - 2006-10-15.jpg|The Trent Valley line looking north from Hademore Crossing on 15 October 2006, showing the track bed for the new lines and works for the new bridge File:Hademore Bridge - 2007-01-07.jpg|The same view on 7 January 2007, showing the newly opened bridge at Hademore
New rolling stock Along with the modernisation improvements, new rolling stock operates along the Trent Valley line.
Class 350 Desiro electric multiple units started operation on 11 December 2006. The
Desiro trains replace the outdated passenger trains that previously ran on the line. They include more advanced features, such as running speeds; with all sets now running at .
Accidents Serious accidents to have occurred on the Trent Valley line include: • 1860 –
Atherstone rail accident; 10 killed. 13 injured. • 1870 –
Tamworth rail crash; 3 killed, 13 injured. • 1946 –
Lichfield rail crash; 20 killed, 21 injured. • 1947 –
Polesworth derailment; 5 killed, 64 injured. • 1975 –
Nuneaton rail crash; 6 killed, 38 injured. • 1986 –
Colwich rail crash; 1 killed, 75 injured. == References ==