July 22, 2019 8:57 pm
The improvements to the Hope Valley Line are listed under Plans in the Wikipedia entry for the line.
This is said.
Network Rail, in partnership with South Yorkshire ITA, will redouble the track between Dore Station Junction and Dore West Junction, at an estimated cost of £15 million. This costing is based on four additional vehicles in traffic to deliver the option, however, this will depend on vehicle allocation through the DfT rolling stock plan. This work will be programmed, subject to funding, in conjunction with signalling renewals in the Dore/Totley Tunnel area.
Other proposals include a loop in the Bamford area, in order to fit in an all-day (07:00–19:00) hourly Manchester–Sheffield via New Mills Central stopping service, by extending an existing Manchester–New Mills Central service. Planning permission for this was granted in February 2018.
These changes to allow three fast trains, a stopping train and freight trains each hour were also supported in a Transport for the North investment report in 2019, together with “further interventions” for the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme.
So what does that all mean?
All of the stations mentioned like Dore & Totley, Bamford are at the Sheffield end of the Hope Valley Line, where it joins the Midland Main Line.
This map, which was clipped from Wikipedia, shows the lines and the stations.
Note.
I’ll now cover each part of the work in seperate sections.
Dore Junction And Dpre & Totley Station
This Google Map shows the area of Dore & Totley station and the triangular junction.
Note.
Network Rail’s plan would appear to do the following.
Instead of a single-track line handling traffic in both directions, there will be a double-track railway with a track in each direction.
Capacity will have been increased.
In some ways Network Rail are only returning the station to how it existed in the past, so it shouldn’t be the most difficult of projects. But many of this type of project have surprises, so I’ll see it when the new station opens.
The Bamford Loop
On this page on the Friends of Dore & Totley Station web site, this is said about the Bamford Loop.
A Bamford Loop which is a place to halt frieight trains to allow passenger trains to overtake. This is east of Bamford station.
It is around a thousand metres long.
Flying my helicopter between Bamford and Heathersage stations, the track appears almost straight and adding a loop shouldn’t be that difficult.
The only problem is that there is a level crossing for a footpath at Heathersage West.
This will be replaced by a footbridge.
Benefits
The page on the Friends of Dore & Totley Station gives the main benefits of the scheme are to :-
These seem to be fairly worthwhile benefits from a relatively simple scheme
Posted by AnonW
Categories: Transport/Travel
Tags: Dore and Totley Station, Hope Valley Line, Manchester, Sheffield, Sheffield Region Transport Plan 2019
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