The New Norton Bridge Junction In Action
I was travelling between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly stations on a Cross-Country train.
After leaving Stafford station, the train took the new route through Norton Bridge Junction on the flyover over the West Coast Main Line to j0in the line to Manchester. The Norton Bridge page on the Network Rail web site, links to this map.
The New Norton Bridge Junction
Trains continuing up the West Coast Main Line take the black route, whereas trains to and from Manchester use the orange line and the branch to the North-East.
This pictures show my progression threough the junction.
I was sitting on the right side of the train.
It looks like the new route is being electrified.
Would this mean that an electrified service could be run on the following route?
- Euston
- Birmingham International
- Birmingham New Street
- Wolverhampton
- Stafford
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Manchester Piccadilly
- Preston
- Carlisle
- Glasgow/Edinburgh
There is also a current electrified route, using the Crewe to Manchester Line and the Styal Line.
- Wolverhampton
- Crewe
- Manchester Airport
- Manchester Piccadilly
Throw in the Ordsall Chord and I suspect that Virgin Trains, TransPennine and Northern Rail have been looking at their traffic, to see if the reconfigured and electrified Norton Bridge Junction could be to their and Manchester Airport’s advantage.
It should also be pointed out, that much of the line from Preston to Crewe, Stoke and Stafford will have line speeds of on or about 100 mph and the new generation of trains like Aventras, Class 700s and Class 800s will be able to take advantage.
It seems to me, that the Norton Bridge Junction and Orsall Chord projects at £250 million according to this document and £85 million according to Wikipedia, respectively, will help to improve services all along the corridor from Preston to Rugby via Manchester, Manchester Airport, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry.
Only when you take a train from Birmingham to Manchester and look seriously at Norton Bridge Junction, do you realise its significance.
Freight Through Nuneaton
Nuneaton is where freight trains between Felixstowe and the North West and the West of Scotland, join and leave the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
This Google Map shows the rail lines through Nuneaton station.
Freight Through Nuneaton
Note how the WCML runs diagonally North-West to South-East, though Nuneaton station.
Freight trains from Felixstowe arrive and turn North alongside the WCML before crossing the WCML on a flyover.
Trains can either go straight on to Birmingham and the West Midlands or turn North using the 2012-built single-track Nuneaton North Chord to proceed up the WCML.
This Google Map shows the flyover and the Nuneaton North Chord.
Nuneaton Flyover And North Chord
Trains from the West Midlands to Felixstowe take the flyover in the other direction, but trains from the WCML proceed through Nuneaton station and then turn off to Felixstowe.
This Google Map shows the WCML to the South of Nuneaton station, with the line to Coventry turning off to the West and the line to Felixstowe turning off to the East.
Lines South Of Nuneaton Station
As I came through the area today from North to South, I took these pictures.
I didn’t take any south of the station, as I was sitting on the wrong side to show the line going East.
The Nuneaton North Chord was a one-mile chord and cost £25.6million, which in terms of railway projects isn’t a lot of money.
But it is one of a pattern of short railway lines that have been built or planned in recent years to unlock the potential of the UK’s railways.
- Bicester Chord was opened in 2015 as part of a £130million project to extend Chiltern services to Oxford.
- Hitchin Flyover was opened in 2013 at a cost of £47million.
- Ipswich Chord was opened in 2014 at a cost of £59million.
- North Doncaster Chord was opened in 2014 vat a cost of £45million.
- Tinsley Chord is being built to enable tram-trains to run between Sheffield and Rotherham at a cost of £2million.
- Todmorden Chord was opened in 2015 at a cost of £9million.
But iit is not all plain sailing, as the saga to create the Ordsall Chord in Manchester shows. Plans show it should be finished in December 2016 at a cost of £95million, but a determined local protester has stuck the development in the Courts with the local Councils, Network Rail, the train companies and the Government on the other side.
I do wonder how many of these short railway lines and chords can and should be built.
The Anonymous Widower 