WORK starts this Spring on the first stages of a £1 billion up-grade of the famous West Coast main railway line. The 550-mile line - the busiest in the UK - is Manchester Piccadilly's vital link with London Euston, the West Midlands and Scotland. When the job is completed early next century there are expected to be major economic benefits for areas all along the route - including Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

It is hoped that there will be an improved freight and passenger service linked to the continent through the Channel Tunnel.

But critics say it is too little, too late.

WCML forms part of the assets of Railtrack, the company which runs British Rail's tracks, stations and signalling.

Railtrack, which is currently Government-owned, is being floated on the stock exchange in May and experts believe it will be valued somewhere between £1.5 and £2.5 billion.

The West Coast project is a flag-ship initiative which has already attracted European finance.

Railtrack is confident that it will find the money initially from various sources and will then seek to recover its investment from the train companies which use the line - 16 of them at present.

Some of the cost will presumably be passed on to passengers and companies using the freight service.

This privatisation is expected to continue to attract major criticism, particularly when the shares advertising scheme starts at the end of March. Cllr Guy Harkin, Deputy Leader of Bolton Council and vice-chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, says the improvements will only bring the west coast up to standards achieved in 1990 on the East Coast Line.

"We think all this is welcome, but inadequate," he said.

The Government would have to subsidise the train operators because no railway system ran at a profit.

Railtrack owns 10,000 miles of track, 14 major stations (including Manchester Piccadilly) and 2,500 local stations, including Trinity Street, Bolton.

The future of these extensive property holdings after privatisation is not clear, but it seems likely that some will change hands to help the company's finances.

Meanwhile, a special team is planning the first major investment in the West Coast Main Line since the 1960s and 1970s.

A major feature will be a cab-signalling system - using digital radio - run from a sophisticated control centre.

It will replace 56 signal boxes along the route and inevitably lead to redundancies among current signalling staff. Journalists were told at a recent briefing in Preston that Railtrack is currently evaluating tenders from nine consortia interested in building the centre and contracts will be awarded before March 31.

It will cost anywhere between £30 million and £50 million.

The location has not been decided.

Railtrack expects the Manchester to London Euston journey to be reduced by up to half an hour from two and a half hours when the scheme is completed.

Eurostar services linking with the Channel tunnel are expected to be running on the line by the end of the year.

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