The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is a key strategic railway line in Great Britain. It links the cities of London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Lancaster, Carlisle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Virgin Trains took on the franchise to operate services on the routes in 1997 and, as part of the agreement, wanted an upgrade to the railway line to allow for faster more frequent trains to grow the business. On 23 December 1994, the feasibility study was published. The upgrade started in 1998 and was completed in 2009. It came under parliamentary and media scrutiny because of cost and schedule overruns. Further improvements such as the Norton Bridge railway flyover were completed after these dates. The project is sometimes given the acronym WCRM.