Morley Station – 17th August 2023
These pictures show Morley station, which is currently being upgraded.
I was rather surprised at the lack of any sign of electrification.
There was no sign of any gantries for overhead electrification, either installed or ready to installed.
In Is There Going To Be Full Electrification Between Leeds And Huddersfield?, I said this.
I have now found this document on the Network Rail web site, which is entitled Huddersfield to Westtown (Dewsbury).
This statement is included under proposals.
Electrification of the railway from Huddersfield to Ravensthorpe – and right through to Leeds.
Because there is a dash in the words, has electrification to Leeds, been a recent addition?
I also showed this map, that I have copied from the Network Rail document
Note the railway lines shown in red. Are these the ones to be electrified? As they go from Huddersfield to Westtown, I think the answer is probably in the affirmative.
Surely, if there were going to be electrification through Morley, they’d have at least put the gantries up by now or installed the bases for them by now?
These are some distances from Real Time Trains.
- Leeds and Morley – 4.6 miles
- Morley and Dewsbury – 5,5 miles
- Dewsbury and Huddersfield 8 miles
Note.
- Leeds and Dewsbury are only 10.1 miles apart, which would be an easy journey for a battery-electric train.
- Trains typically take eighteen minutes between Dewsbury and Huddersfield, which would surely be more than enough time to charge the batteries on a train.
- It also appears that the only trains through Morley station are passenger services run by TransPennine Express or Northern Trains.
It certainly looks to me, that the section of the route between Dewsbury and Leeds though Morley station is to be run using battery-electric trains.
The Anonymous Widower 
It will be a long time before they start putting up the wires. NR don’t put up short sections, but prefer to do longer stretches at once. They first do preparatory work, like clearing vegetation, then the major track/station/bridge/level crossing changes. Only when that’s complete do they start on electrification. There’s major works to be done on Hud-Dew, like 4-tracking and a new flyover at Ravensthorpe.
AIUI, there’s still electrification work to do on Stalybridge-Guide Bridge, and then there’s Bolton-Wigan.
Comment by Peter Robins | August 18, 2023 |
PS I see work piling work at Wigan NW has now started https://www.linkedin.com/posts/derek-allan-64b753110_teamcollaboration-splpowerlines-electrification-activity-7091759481910386689-Y6U0
Comment by Peter Robins | August 18, 2023 |
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