New £10m depot unveiled to maintain Manchester's railway for passengers

A £10m new rail maintenance depot has been unveiled to keep passenger and freight trains moving smoothly through Greater Manchester.

The high-tech facility at Guide Bridge is the new home for over 120 Network Rail staff who work night and day to make the railway safe and reliable.

In just over a year, the two-storey building has been built on a 2.3-acre former railway siding.

It brings four separate track maintenance teams under one roof for the first time, having previously been based in separate temporary cabins with outdated facilities on the same site.

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It's hoped that bringing the staff together will mean better collaboration and faster response times to fix railway faults – leading to fewer delays for passengers.

The building came in £6m under budget thanks to a range of efficiency measures including innovative construction sequencing, material specifications and challenging standard railway approaches.

Clare Waller, Network Rail’s interim North West route director, said: “It’s fantastic to see this new depot at Guide Bridge now in use and provide modern facilities for the teams based there so they can respond to incidents and maintain the railway for passengers and freight in Greater Manchester.“The teams have worked across multiple temporary buildings and not the best of environments for many years, so I’m sure this new striking building with top-notch accommodation will make a massive difference to them and the work they are able to achieve.”

Everything has been built to modern accessibility standards, with a lift between floors, accessible toilet and changing rooms.

The male locker room has 120 lockers and female equivalent 20 lockers, both with showering and toilet facilities, while the mess room has capacity for 100 staff at any one time.

There is an array of 60 solar panels on the depot’s roof which will provide approximately 44% of the depot’s energy, with a buy-back scheme set to be introduced so it can generate revenue with any surplus being supplied back to National Grid.

Ten new electric vehicle charging points have also been installed the depot as part of Network Rail’s commitment to move to all-electric vehicles in future.

Network Rail’s Maintenance Delivery Units (MDUs) are operational day and night with shifts around the clock for teams to be able to respond to incidents and carry out overnight engineering work.