Reinstatement Of The Bury-Heywood-Rochdale Lines
This is one of the successful bids in the First Round of the Restoring Your Railway Fund.
This article on Rochdale OnLine is entitled Successful First Step To Restore Rochdale-Heywood-Bury Railway Line.
The work can now begin to fill out what is possible, with the award of funding from the Government to go towards a full study.
The funding was welcomed by Tony Lloyd, the MP for Rochdale, who is quoted as saying this.
Metrolink services and the rail service from Rochdale to Manchester provide transport to the city centre, but it does not provide the kind of connections we need to get around the city region, in particular, from Rochdale and Heywood to Bury.
“The current public transport offering between Heywood and Manchester city centre is provided by bus services but during the busiest times of the day this journey can take more than one hour, limiting the borough’s residents’ access to the many jobs located there.
What will the new rail link look like?
In Rossendale Reopening Prospect, I gave my views, based on an article in the February 2019 Edition of Modern Railways, which had the same title.
Summarising the other article, I can say the following.
The Track
I described the track like this.
The plan envisages reinstating the route between Rawtenstall and Castleton Junction on the Calder Valley Line.
The section between Rawtenstall and Heywood stations, via Bury Bolton Street station is the heritage line of the East Lancashire Railway (ELR). It is best described as predominately single-track with passing loops.
The route is about twelve miles long.
The Services
These are given as follows.
- Manchester Victoria and Bury Bolton Street
- Bury Bolton Street and Rochdale
- Bury Bolton Street and Rawtenstall – Peak Hour shuttle.
It is suggested that the third route would be run by the ELR.
The Stations
The following stations will be on the route.
Most will need updating, but Heywood would probably be a new station.
The Trains
The original article suggests Class 230 trains, but several others are possible. The proposed battery-electric Class 331 train is surely a possibility.
Conclusion
This could be a very sensible scheme.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] Reinstatement Of The Bury-Heywood-Rochdale Lines […]
Pingback by Restoring Your Railway Fund « The Anonymous Widower | May 26, 2020 |
there’s an article in the Bury Times https://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/18550776.no-threat-elr-posed-study-reopening-bury-railway-line/ quoting the chair of East Lancs Railway. In particular, “This line sits separate to the tracks used by the ELR for its heritage services” and “The study is looking at running battery operated tram-trains on a separate line which does not impact on ELR heritage operations”. So looks like Gtr Man can be added to Merseyrail, Tyne & Wear, and S Wales as definitely investigating battery-powered operation. A thumbs-up from me 🙂
Comment by Peter Robins | July 5, 2020 |
[…] See Reinstatement Of The Bury-Heywood-Rochdale Lines […]
Pingback by Restoring Your Railway: Successful Bids « The Anonymous Widower | December 10, 2020 |
Rossendale Council’s just submitted a £80m proposal to the DfT, now dubbed the City Valley Rail Link https://www.railwaygazette.com/uk/80m-rawtenstall-manchester-rail-link-proposal-submitted-to-government/62721.article
Comment by Peter Robins | October 10, 2022 |