The Anonymous Widower

Electrification Of The Hope Valley Line

This news story from the Department of Transport is entitled Yorkshire And The Humber To Benefit From £19.8 billion Transport Investment.

This is said about the Hope Valley Line.

The Hope Valley Line between Manchester and Sheffield will also be electrified and upgraded, with the aim of cutting journey times from 51 to 42 minutes and increasing the number of fast trains on the route from 2 to 3 per hour, doubling capacity.

The fast trains are currently TransPennine’s service between Liverpool Lime Street and Cleethorpes.

• Between Platform 13 at Manchester Piccadilly station and Sheffield station is 42.6 miles.
• At the Manchester end, there will be electrification between Manchester Piccadilly and Hazel Grove stations, which is 8.7 miles and takes typically 17 minutes.
• After the electrification of the Midland Main Line to Sheffield, there will be electrification between Dore & Totley and Sheffield stations, which is 4.2 miles and takes typically 8 minutes.

The gap in the electrification between Dore & Totley and Hazel Grove stations will be 29.7 miles.

But it will not be an easy route to electrify.

• At the Western end, there is the Disley Tunnel, which is 3535 metres long.
• In the middle, there is the Cowburn Tunnel which is 3385 metres long, that is also the deepest tunnel in England.
• At the Eastern end, there is the Totley Tunnel, which is 5700 metres long.

Yorkshire doesn’t have an Underground railway, but the combined length of these three tunnels is 7.84 miles, which means that over 26 % of the electrification needed between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield will have to be installed in tunnels.

Could The Route Be Run Using Battery-Electric Trains?

Consider.

• The gap in the electrification between Dore & Totley and Hazel Grove stations will be 29.7 miles.
• There is electrified sections at Dore & Totley and Hazel Grove stations, which will be able to charge the trains.
• Merseyrail’s Class 777 trains have demonstrated a battery range of 84 miles.
• A Stadler Akku train has demonstrated a battery range of 139 miles.
• Hitachi are developing a battery-electric version of TransPennine’s Class 802 train.
• If all trains can run on batteries or be self-powered, there would be no need to electrify the long and possibly difficult tunnels.

I believe that it would be possible to electrify all passenger services between Manchester and Sheffield using appropriate battery-electric trains.

Freight would be a problem and I suspect that hydrogen-hybrid and other self-powered locomotives could handle the route.

Could The Complete TransPennine Liverpool Lime Street and Cleethorpes Service Be Run By Battery-Electric Class 802 trains?

These are the various electrified and unelectrified sections.

• Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway – Electrified – 5.7 miles – 10 minutes
• Liverpool South Parkway and Trafford Park  – Not Electrified – 25.2 miles – 30 minutes
• Trafford Park and Hazel Grove  – Electrified – 12.6 miles – 28 minutes
• Hazel Grove and Dore & Totley  – Not Electrified – 29.7 miles – 35 minutes
• Dore & Totley and Sheffield  – Electrified – 4.2 miles – 6 minutes
• Sheffield and Doncaster  – Not Electrified – 18.6 miles – 25 minutes
• Doncaster and Cleethorpes  – Not Electrified – 52.1 miles – 78 minutes

Note.

1. This is a total of 125.6 miles without electrification.
2. The Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield time is 56 minutes.
3. The distance is 37.8 miles.
4. That is an average speed on 40.5 mph.
5. Most of the line between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield has an maximum speed of 70 mph, but there is a short length of track with a 50 mph speed and another longer one with 90 mph.

To achieve 40 minutes between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield would need an average speed of 60.7 mph. Given the improvements being carried out by Network Rail at the current time, I believe that forty minutes between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield should be possible.

I’ll look at a train going East.

• The train will leave Liverpool Lime Street with a reasonably full battery after charging using the current electrification in the station.
• The train will leave Liverpool South Parkway with a full battery after charging using the current electrification from Liverpool Lime Street.
• The train will arrive at Trafford Park with a battery perhaps two-thirds full, but it will be fully charged on the current electrification to Hazel Grove.
• The train will arrive at Dore & Totley with a battery perhaps two-thirds full, but it will be fully charged on the Midland Main Line electrification to Sheffield.
• The train will arrive at Doncaster with a battery perhaps two-thirds full and the train would wait until it had enough charge to reach Cleethorpes.

I’ll look at a train going West.

• The train will leave Cleethorpes with a full battery after charging using the new electrification in the station.
• The train will arrive at Doncaster with a battery perhaps two-thirds full and the train would wait until it had enough charge to reach Sheffield.
• The train will arrive at Sheffield with a battery perhaps two-thirds full, but it will be fully charged on the Midland Main Line electrification to Dore & Totley.
• The train will arrive at Hazel Grove with a battery perhaps two-thirds full, but it will be fully charged on the current electrification to Trafford Park.
• The train will arrive at Liverpool South Parkway with a battery perhaps two-thirds full, but the route is electrified to Liverpool Lime Street.

Note.

1. If the battery range on a full battery was over 90 miles, the two most easterly sections could be run without any charging at Doncaster.
2. If the battery range was over 125.6 miles, the journey could be done by starting with a full battery.
3. If every time the train decelerated, regenerative braking would recover energy, which could be reused.
4. The only new electrification needed will be a short length at Cleethorpes station, that would charge the trains.

I certainly believe that Liverpool Lime Street and Cleethorpes services could be run by battery-electric trains.

Could The Complete TransPennine Liverpool Lime Street and Cleethorpes Service Be Run By Battery-Electric Class 802 trains Without The Midland Main Line Electrification?

In this section, I’m assuming, that there is no electrification at Sheffield.

These would be the various electrified and unelectrified sections.

• Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway – Electrified – 5.7 miles – 10 minutes
• Liverpool South Parkway and Trafford Park  – Not Electrified – 25.2 miles – 30 minutes
• Trafford Park and Hazel Grove  – Electrified – 12.6 miles – 28 minutes
• Hazel Grove and Cleethorpes  – Not Electrified – 104.6 miles – 143 minutes

Note.

1. This is a total of 129.6 miles without electrification.
2. The battery range of the train, should probably be around 120 miles to make sure the train could run between Hazel Grove and Cleethorpes.
3. One diesel power-pack could be installed for emergency use.

I’ll look at a train going East.

• The train will leave Liverpool Lime Street with a reasonably full battery after charging using the current electrification in the station.
• The train will leave Liverpool South Parkway with a full battery after charging using the current electrification from Liverpool Lime Street.
• The train will arrive at Trafford Park with a battery perhaps 80 % full, but it will be fully charged on the current electrification to Hazel Grove.
• The train would then eek out what power it had left to reach Cleethorpes.

If necessary, the train could stop in the electrified Doncaster station to top up the batteries from the East Coast Main Line electrification for the run to Cleethorpes.

I’ll look at a train going West.

• The train will leave Cleethorpes with a full battery after charging using new electrification in the station.
• The train will arrive at Doncaster with a battery perhaps 57 % full and the train would wait if needed, until it had enough charge to reach Hazel Grove.
• The train will arrive at Hazel Grove with a battery perhaps one-thirds full, but it will be fully charged on the current electrification to Trafford Park.
• The train will arrive at Liverpool South Parkway with a battery perhaps one-thirds full, but the route is electrified to Liverpool Lime Street.

Note.

1. If the battery range on a full battery was over 105 miles, the Eastern section could be run without any charging at Doncaster.
2. If the battery range was over 129.6 miles, the journey could be done by starting with a full battery.
3. If every time the train decelerated, regenerative braking would recover energy, which could be reused.
4. The only new electrification needed will be a short length at Cleethorpes station, that would charge the trains.

However, it might be prudent to electrify the through platforms at Sheffield, so that they could be used for emergency charging if required.

Northern Train’s Service Between Sheffield And Manchester Piccadilly Via The Hope Valley Line

There is a one train per hour (tph) Northern service between Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly.

• The Class 195 diesel train takes 78 minutes.
• The distance is 42 miles.
• The first mile or so at the Manchester end is electrified.
• Trains seem to take about sixteen minutes to turn round at Manchester Piccadilly.
• Trains seem to take about nine minutes to turn round at Sheffield.
• The service runs via Reddish North, Brinnington, Bredbury, Romiley, Marple, New Mills Central, Chinley, Edale, Hope, Bamford, Hathersage, Grindleford and Dore & Totley.
• The max speed is generally 60 mph to the West of New Mills Central and 70 mph to the East, with short lower speed sections.

There would appear to be two ways to run this route withy battery-electric trains.

• As Manchester Piccadilly station is fully-electrified and trains could be connected to the electrification for upwards of twenty minutes, trains will certainly be able to be fully-charged at Manchester. As the round trip is only 84 miles, could trains run the service without a charge at Sheffield.
• Alternatively, there could be a dedicated electrified platform at Sheffield. But the problem with this, is that currently this service uses a random platform at Sheffield.

It looks like, if the train has the required range, that charging at the Manchester end would be the better solution.

Liverpool And Norwich Via The Hope Valley Line

This service uses a similar route between Liverpool Lime Street and Sheffield, as the Liverpool and Hull service and then it meanders, through the East Midlands.

• Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway – Electrified – 5.7 miles – 11 minutes
• Liverpool South Parkway and Trafford Park  – Not Electrified – 25.2 miles – 33 minutes
• Trafford Park and Hazel Grove  – Electrified – 12.6 miles – 26 minutes
• Hazel Grove and Dore & Totley  – Not Electrified – 29.7 miles – 28 minutes
• Dore & Totley and Sheffield  – Electrified – 4.2 miles – 6 minutes
• Sheffield and Nottingham – Being Electrified – 40.6 miles – 52 minutes
• Nottingham and Grantham – Not Electrified – 22.7 miles – 30 minutes
• Grantham and Peterborough – Electrified – 29.1 miles – 29 minutes
• Peterborough And Ely – Not Electrified – 30 miles – 31 minutes
• Ely and Norwich – Not Electrified – 53.7 miles – 56 minutes

This is a total of 161.3 miles without electrification.

But as Sheffield and Nottingham and Grantham and Peterborough will be fully electrified, this route will be possible using a battery-electric train.

Electrifying Sheffield Station

I said earlier in this post, that electrifying Sheffield station would be an option for electrifying the Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly service.

If this were to be done, it would have collateral benefits for other services that terminate at Sheffield, which could be charged whilst they turned around.

I wrote about Sheffield station as a battery-electric train hub in Could Sheffield Station Become A Battery-Electric Train Hub?

Conclusion

I believe that full electrification of the Hope Valley Line is not needed, if battery-electric trains are used.

I also believe that battery-electric trains and the current improvements being carried out on the Hope Valley Line will enable a forty minute time between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield.

 

 

October 15, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Battery-Electric Trains, Chesterfield Station, Class 777 Train, Class 802 Train, Cleethorpes Station, Discontinuous Electrification, Dore and Totley Station, East Coast Main Line, Freight, Hazel Grove Station, Hope Valley Line, Manchester Piccadilly Station, Midland Main Line, Midland Main Line Electrification, Partial Electrification, Sheffield Station, Spending High Speed Two Money, Stadler FLIRT Akku