Reform ‘Would Scrap’ High-Speed Northern Rail Line
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
A Reform UK government would scrap plans to build the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) link, its deputy leader has said.
These two paragraphs add extra details.
In a report to the right-leaning Policy Exchange think tank, Richard Tice said companies considering bidding for contracts to build east-to-west high-speed rail links should “not bother”.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham rejected Tice’s comments and suggested Reform UK wanted a “second-class railway” for the north of England.
As I showed in I’ve Just Glimpsed The Future Of Train Travel Across The North Of England And I Like It, much of Northern Powerhouse Rail is complete or under construction to the East of Manchester and the only section of Northern Powerhouse Rail to be announced, designed and constructed is between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester via Manchester Airport. I discussed this section in Completing Northern Powerhouse Rail.
I also suspect that Reform UK, is the only party, that is against the building of Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Conclusion
How do you scrap a railway, that is half complete and only needs about twenty miles of new track for completion?
Completing Northern Powerhouse Rail
The Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two Connection To Manchester Airport Station
This OpenRailwayMap shows the rail connections that terminate at Manchester Airport station.
Note.
- The two runways are clearly shown.
- Manchester Airport station is indicated by the blue arrow near the top of the map.
- The orange tracks are rail lines.
- The green lines are Manchester Metrolink tracks.
- Rail and tram services approach the airport station from the East.
- The red dotted line is the current proposed path of Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two
- The black dotted line appears to be an extension of the tram line to the airport.
This second OpenRailwayMap shows the lines around the airport station to a larger scale.
Note.
- Manchester Airport station is indicated by the blue arrow at the bottom of the map.
- The orange tracks are rail lines.
- The green lines are Manchester Metrolink tracks.
- The red dotted line is the current proposed path of Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
- The Manchester Metrolink now makes a loop around the Airport.
I think the following will happen.
- A large proportion of passengers and staff travelling between Manchester Airport and Manchester City Centre will use Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
- Passengers and staff, who live locally will use the Manchester Metro loop.
- Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two will replace some of the current train services.
- Some services on the Castlefield Corridor will migrate to Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
There could be as many as twelve trains per hour (tph) between Manchester Airport and Manchester City Centre on Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two. But a new urban line like that, which was mostly in a tunnel could probably handle 20 tph.
Manchester Airport And Crewe
This OpenRailwayMap shows the railways between Manchester Airport and Crewe stations.
Note.
- Manchester Airport station is indicated by the blue arrow at the top of the map.
- The orange tracks are rail lines.
- The red track going down the left hand side of the map is the West Coast Main Line.
- The green lines are Manchester Metrolink tracks.
- The red dotted line is the current proposed path of Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
- Crewe station is at the bottom of the map in the middle.
There could be as many as 12 tph between Manchester Airport and Crewe.
Manchester Airport And Manchester Piccadilly
This OpenRailwayMap shows the railways between Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly stations.
Note.
- Manchester Airport station is in the South-West corner of the map.
- The orange tracks are existing rail lines.
- The green lines are Manchester Metrolink tracks.
- The red dotted line going up the middle of the map is the current proposed path of Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
- Manchester Piccadilly station is at the Northern end of Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
This OpenRailwayMap shows the City Centre between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria stations.
Note.
- Manchester Piccadilly station is in the South-East corner of the map.
- The red dotted lines creeping into the map is the current proposed path of Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two.
- All the platforms in Manchester Piccadilly station can be picked out, with the Castlefield Corridor breaking away to the West.
- The current plans will need demolition of buildings to the North of Manchester Piccadilly station.
- Manchester Victoria station is in the North-West corner of the map.
- The green line of the Manchester Metrolink route picks out the walking route between Manchester’s two main stations.
- About halfway between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria stations is the open space of Piccadilly Gardens.
This Google Map shows Piccadilly Gardens.
Note.
- The Manchester Metrolink running through.
- There are two Metrolink stops ; Market Street and Piccadilly Gardens, in the area.
- It appears any stop on the Manchester Metrolink can be reached with no more than a single change from one of these two stops.
Looking at the map showing Victoria and Piccadilly stations, I wonder, if a Lizzie Line of the North could be built under Manchester City Centre.
- There would be underground platforms at Piccadilly station, with two through platforms and two to terminate trains from the South.
- Local services from Piccadilly station could continue as now, although services to Manchester Airport could be simplified.
- There would be an underground station at Piccadilly Gardens with two through platforms , to connect with an expanded Manchester Metrolink, buses and walking routes.
- There would be underground platforms at Victoria station, with two through platforms and two to terminate trains from the East.
- Local services from Victoria could continue as now.
- There could be as many as 12 tph between Manchester Victoria, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.
Just as the Lizzie Line was slotted into London, with the minimum of disruption, I am fairly certain, a similar but smaller construction process could be carried out in Manchester City Centre.
- Manchester doesn’t have an Underground to avoid.
- The stations could be very similar to each other and like Custom House station on the Lizzie Line, they could be built with giant concrete Lego.
- There would only be four stations to create.
- The tunnel would be about fifteen miles at most.
- The tunnel would not need to be electrified as the trains could run on batteries.
As a Manchester Rail Tunnel has been talked about for decades, I suspect there is a big knowledge base of ground conditions, which would help with the design and construction.
Between Manchester Victoria And Leeds
Consider.
- The electrification between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge stations has recently been switched on.
- Part of the electrification between Leeds and York stations has been switched on.
- Full electrification is being installed between Leeds and Manchester Victoria stations.
This OpenRailwayMap shows the Huddersfield Line between Manchester Victoria station and a few miles short of Huddersfield station.
Note.
- Manchester Victoria station is indicated by the blue arrow in the South-West corner of the map.
- Huddersfield station is just off the map in the North-East corner.
- Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge stations is fully electrified and shown in red.
- Stalybridge and Huddersfield stations is being electrified and is shown as black and red dotted.
- Electrification between Huddersfield and Leeds is underway under the TransPennine Upgrade.
This section will be completed, when the Manchester City Centre Rail Tunnel is connected to the Huddersfield Line.
Connecting The Manchester City Centre Rail Tunnel To The Huddersfield Line
This Google Map shows where the Huddersfield Line crosses the M60 Motorway to the West of Ashton-under-Lyme.
Note.
- The newly-electrified Huddersfield Line runs across the map.
- The M60 Motorway is on the left.
- There are facilities for athletics, cricket and football.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Eastern portal of the Manchester City Centre Rail Tunnel was in this area.
But looking at Google Maps between this site and Manchester Victoria, there are other sites.
Conclusion
I now feel that it is possible to create a Northern Powerhouse Rail/High Speed Two route using a tunnel under Manchester.
Obviously, there is more work to be done.
Bradford Railway Station: Axed Plans For New Travel Hub Reconsidered
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
Plans for a new railway station in Bradford will be reconsidered after the government previously scrapped them.
These paragraphs outline how the government has changed its mind.
Former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps cancelled the plan for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), a brand new line serving the city, in November 2021.
The government has said an updated business case for the project was expected later this year.
West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin welcomed the news but criticised the “dither and delay”.
When the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) was unveiled in 2021, it included cutting much of HS2’s eastern leg and scaling back NPR, including plans for a new station and line in Bradford.
The announcement that the government would now reconsider plans was made in the Department for Transport’s (DfT) response to the Transport Select Committee’s report on the IRP.
The committee had argued that the department had not properly tested alternative options to its proposals and had left out analysis of wider economic “levelling up” impacts of different options for NPR.
But there are no details yet.
Do We Know Anything?
The new station has been proposed to be built on the site of the current St. James Wholesale Market In Bradford.
This OpenRailwayMap shows the route of the railway between Leeds and Bradford Interchange stations, which runs via New Pudsey station.
Note.
- Leeds is to the East.
- Bradford Interchange station is in the North-West corner of the map.
- The yellow line across the map is the railway between Leeds and Bradford Interchange stations.
- St. James Wholesale Market is the rectangular building towards the top of the map in the middle.
- The dotted line going through the market is a disused goods line.
It is not obvious how the station will be connected to the rail network.
The Definitive High Speed Two Route Map
This map is shown on the High Speed Two web site.
The map shows how it links to other routes.
- High Speed Two joins the West Coast Main Line at Crewe and South of Wigan.
- High Speed Two uses a route via Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent to serve Macclesfield.
- High Speed Two uses the current Crewe and Liverpool route to serve Runcorn and Liverpool.
- High Speed Two to Manchester Piccadilly share tracks with Northern Powerhouse Rail between Liverpool and Manchester Piccadilly via Warrington and Manchester Airport.
- High Speed Two uses the loop around Crewe to Wigan to serve North West England and Scotland.
- High Speed Two joins the East Coast Main Line South of York, to serve York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle.
- High Speed Two joins the Midland Main Line at Clay Cross North Junction to serve Chesterfield and Sheffield.
- High Speed Two has connections to Midlands Rail Engine at Birmingham, Crewe and East Midlands Hub.
- High Speed Two has connections to Northern Powerhouse Rail at Liverpool, Manchester Airport, Manchester Piccadilly, Sheffield and Leeds.
Huddersfield And High Speed Two
There are only nine Grade I Listed Railway Stations In The UK and Huddersfield station is one of them.
As you can see, it also has several long platforms and two pubs.
In addition, the station is step-free and has connecting local services to Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.
This Google Map shows the basic layout of the station and its position on St. George’s Square.
Manchester is to the South and Leeds is to the North.
Huddersfield station has no direct services to London, but there are three routes to and from London with a single change.
These are best times.
- Euston changing at Manchester Piccadilly – two hours and fifty-five minutes
- Kings Cross changing at Leeds – two hours and forty-eight minutes
- St. Pancras changing at Sheffield – two hours and forty-eight minutes
There’s not really much in it!
I bought an Off Peak Return from London Terminals to Huddersfield, travelling North via Euston and Manchester Piccadilly and returning South via Sheffield and St. Pancras.
How Long Will A Journey To And From London By High Speed Two Take?
In Changes Signalled For HS2 Route In North, I looked at proposals to effectively merge High Speed Two and Northern Powerhouse Rail into a comprehensive High Speed Rail system for the North of England.
My thoughts in the related post, were based on this report on the Transport for the North web site, which is entitled At A Glance – Northern Powerhouse Rail.
This map from the Transport of the North report, shows Western section of the rail system.
There are three routes going East from Manchester.
- The yellow route is a possible new route to Leeds via Bradford, which I feel will probably be largely in tunnel.
- The black toute is the upgraded existing Huddersfield Line between Manchester and Leeds via Huddersfield, which is shown.
- The purple route is the upgraded Hope Valley Line to Sheffield.
I feel that the upgraded black route will be created first, with the faster yellow route, which I suspect will be mainly in tunnel, being added later.
In Changes Signalled For HS2 Route In North, I said that I believed that both London and Liverpool and London and Manchester services could be below seventy minutes.
In that report I also quoted a figure from a Transport for the North report, that said that Manchester and Leeds services would take twenty-five minutes.
I think the following timings, should be possible by High Speed Two trains.
- London and Manchester – 70 minutes
- Manchester and Huddersfield – 20 minutes
What would a ninety minute time between London and Huddersfield do for the town?
Conclusion
High Speed Two should call at Huddersfield station.
Is It Back To The Future In Manchester?
In the 1970s British Rail, proposed three tunnel projects in the North
- A Loop and Link in Liverpool that linked railways from North, South and the Wirral underneath the City Centre.
- A tunnel under Newcastle.
- The Picc-Vic Tunnel, under Manchester.
All three tunnels were designed to connect the railways on both sides of the cities.
- Liverpool got the much-loved and successful Northern and Wirral Lines of Merseyrail in 1977.
- Newcastle got the much-loved and successful Tyne and Wear Metro in 1980.
- Manchester got nothing, as Harold Wilson cancelled it, like Maplin Airport and the Channel Tunnel.
Am I right in thinking that the Channel Tunnel was resurrected later and opened in 1994? It is now much-loved and successful!
Finally, the Government and a lot of opposition MPs and unions have decided that Maplin be replaced by a third runway at Heathrow.
Will that be cancelled by Boris, David, Jeremy, Ruth or Vince?
Today, this article has been published on Rail Magazine, which is entitled Option For Underground Station At Manchester Piccadilly.
Apparently, to integrate Northern Powerhouse Rail into the HS2 station at Manchester Piccadiily station, one option is to go underground.
So are those ideas and surveys of the 1970s being looked at for a solution?
Hammond To Announce ‘More Money’ For Northern Powerhouse Rail
This title of this post is the same as that on this article on the BBC.
This is said.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is to announce an extra £300m to improve rail links in northern England, in a speech to the Conservative Party conference.
Plans to electrify the whole Trans-Pennine route have been in doubt.
But the new money will be used to ensure HS2 will link to faster trains between Liverpool and Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and York – so-called Northern Powerhouse rail.
What would I do with £300 million to improve the rail lines in the North?
To Electrify Or Not!
If we don’t electrify a few routes it will make things difficult.
As an example, you might want to create an HS2 route from London to Middlesbrough, using the Northallerton to Middlesbrough Line.
HS2 trains would probably travel from the HS2 terminus at Leeds along the East Coast Main Line to Northallerton.
If the last few miles were not electrified, then the train would need to be a bi-mode.
However, the dead weight of a diesel engine might reduce the performance sufficiently, so the train couldn’t run at full speed on HS2.
So the HS2 trains would probably need electrified track at all time!
I don’t think that all the destinations that might need an HS2 service are on all-electric route from HS2.
How about these stations?
- Barrow
- Blackburn
- Burnley
- Edinburgh
- Huddersfield
- Lincoln
- Middlesbrough
- Newcastle
- Sheffield
- York
Note that Carlisle and Glasgow are not on my list, but four important stations , that are served by the East Coast Main Line, cannot be reached by an electric train from HS2, because of gaps in the electrification.
Splitting And Joining
I am assuming that trains can join and split like the Class 395 trains to Kent.
As a simple example two five-car trains might start from London as a ten-car train and split at Crewe or Nottingham, with perhaps each train going to different destinations.
Going southward, two trains would join for the dash to London.
Cross-And Same-Platform Interchanges
By clever station design, it might be possible for interchanges at places like Crewe, Nottingham, Preston and York to be a simple procedure, where passengers get off one train and get on the connecting service either immediately or after a few minutes, without negotiating any steps, escalators or lifts.
Electrification
Possible routes to electrify would be as follows.
Batley To Selby Via East Leeds Parkway, Leeds and White Rose Centre
Leeds are keen to build two new stations; East Leeds Parkway and White Rose Centre. The line could be electrified between these two stations to form a new electrified CrossLeeds service perhaps between Batley in the West and Selby in the East.
There is the 4km. long tunnel at Morley and this could be easy to electrify, by using an overhead rail, as was used in the Severn Tunnel.
Leeds to York
This would give the following advantages.
- It would complete a fully electric route from Leeds to York, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- A time saving of upwards of upwards of five minutes between Leeds and York.
- Direct connection for HS2 to the East Coast Main Line.
- It would allow electric trains to be moved between York and Neville Hill depot in Leeds.
It would also be a fairly simple piece of electrification.
Northallerton To Middlesbrough
This line is only twenty miles long and it would allow electric trains and HS2 to go to Middlesbrough.
Preston To Burnley via Blackburn
I’m very keen on this electrification.
- It would give a lift to the area.
- Electric and bi-mode trains could run between Blackpool, Blackburn, Clitheroe, Burnley, Colne, Liverpool and Manchester.
HS2 trains would be able to reach Blackburn and/or Burnley.
Tunnels
There are several long tunnels in the Pennines. I believe that these should be electrified, as Network Rail seem to be able to handle tunnels.
Bi-mode trains would run through using the electrification.
Improved Lines
These lines could be improved and might even be electrified.
Camp Hill Line
This would create a second line across Birmingham. Extra chords at Bordesley, a couple of stations and electrification would make it a quality improvement.
Carnforth To Barrow
Barrow and the nearby Sellafield need a lift and perhaps, if the line were to be improved bi-mode trains could reach Barrow from Crewe, where there will be an easy interchange with HS2.
Electrifying the line might be possible, but the Heritage lobby won’t want the Lake District spoiled.
Derby To Nottingham Via East Midlands Hub
When HS2 gets to the East Midlands Hub station between Nottingham and Derby, it will need good connections to both cities.
This could be heavy rail or an extended Nttingham Express Transit.
Liverpool To Manchester Via Chat Moss
The electrified route between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria stations has a very low operating speed.
Sort it!
New And Reopened Lines
There are a couple of lines thsat could be built or reopened.
MerseyRail’s Northern Line to Skelmersdale
I like this idea and it could be an improvement with a high return.
Skipton And Colne
This missing link should be created, so that there is another route across the Pennines.
As Skipton is electrified, why not electrify the link and the existing Colne to Rose Grove line, which would be on the Preston to Burnley route that I think should be electrified.
Conclusion
I’ve probably spent £300 million now!
But I do think, if Network Rail are innovative, things can be made a lot better.
The Anonymous Widower 