Network Rail’s £350m Trent Valley 4 Tracking project to widen the West Coast Main Line through Staffordshire reached a major milestone on 15 October 2007, when one of the first stretches of new railway to be constructed was used by trains for the first time.

Keith Riley, Network Rail’s Senior Project Manager said: "This is great news for passengers as it means we're a big step towards our ultimate aim of delivering a better, more frequent and faster train service for passengers and freight users alike. "The opening marks a new phase in the Trent Valley project with most of the work to widen bridges and other structures now complete, our focus now moves to adding more tracks and updating the signalling and electrical equipment for our December 2008 completion target."

The new track opened on 15 October was a 1.5 mile stretch at Armitage with Handsacre which has been transferred onto the existing signalling equipment. It is the longest single stretch of new track to be opened so far in the Trent Valley 4 Tracking Project. New sections of track have already opened over the river Tame near Tamworth and at Huddlesford.

As well as widening the tracks there are 37 structures to be replaced or modified as part of the Trent Valley project. The majority of the engineering work on these structures has now been completed and the project itself is now over 75% complete.

Network Rail’s £350 million Trent Valley Four Tracking Project (TV4) will increase capacity on the West Coast Main Line by doubling the tracks from two to four along a 12 mile stretch of railway between Armitage with Handsacre and Tamworth, removing a major bottleneck.

The Trent Valley project represents one of the final parts of the £8.6bn upgrade of the West Coast Main Line which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008.