Transpennine Route Upgrade and Electrification updates

[jonesy3001]

Is there anything happening on the leeds to york section, seems to have gone quiet.

 

[Roast Veg]

Is there anything happening on the leeds to york section, seems to have gone quiet.

The south side of Neville Hill depot has been cleared, and I believe there are earthworks ongoing.

 

[coxxy]

New footbridge at Garforth is taking shape, Piling has taken place in a short section between Micklefield and Church fenton for OHLE masts, and a bridge is due to be replaced, also between church Fenton and Micklefield, should have been done a while ago but strong winds prevented it.

 

[Harvey B]

The south side of Neville Hill depot has been cleared, and I believe there are earthworks ongoing.

How come the whole south side had to be cleared?

 

[Geeves]

How come the whole south side had to be cleared?

I might be remembering wrong Harvey but I believe the plan is to smooth out the curves on the mainline outside the depot increasing line speed, at the same time the depot will be remodeled

 

[LkmtvMetatarsl]

Are the new lifts at Selby part of the TPRU project or more an Access for All one? They look to be nearly finished.

 

[swt_passenger]

Are the new lifts at Selby part of the TPRU project or more an Access for All one? They look to be nearly finished.

It’s an Access for All scheme according to NR’s 2022 PR:

The scheme, which is being delivered as part of the Government’s Access for All initiative, launched last week when a compound was constructed at the site. The main part of the work will begin in the coming weeks and will bring a much more modern station to the Yorkshire town, in line with the station’s growth in passenger numbers over recent years

Step-free Selby: Upgraded footbridge and new lifts project set to begin

Passengers at Selby station, managed by TransPennine Express, will soon benefit from major accessibility improvements, as preparations are made to install brand-new lifts and strengthen the Grade II listed footbridge.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

 

[snowball]

The May issue of Modern Railways has a 7-page feature on TRU. A lot of it will be familiar to regular readers of this thread. The timescales seem to get ever longer. Some of the main points:

It mentions the east and west "alliances" that are working on the project. In describing the territory covered by the east alliance it mentions Selby. I assume this is a hangover from the distant days when Micklefield to Selby was in the project. There is nothing to suggest it has been brought back in. ("Network North", the HS2 replacement ragbag, is supposed to include electrification to Hull but this is not mentioned in the feature, and who know when or whether it will happen?)

In #7771 I quoted RAIL magazine saying Colton to Church Fenton should be energised in July, but this feature says it will not be linked up with the ECML wiring at Colton until Christmas.

"We think Ravensthorpe will be the biggest civil engineering site in the north of England at around 1km square."

Shipley depot is due to open in 2027. A 12-week blockade to remodel the route past Neville Hill is pencilled in for 2028. Maintaining access to Hunslet freight terminal is a challenge. Not explained why 12 weeks is needed; previous discussion has mentioned a realignment for linespeed, but this feature talks about reliability and capacity.

There is no mention of any proposals to requadrify any of the route east of Leeds.

It confirms that there will be a third track between Huddersfield and Marsden, and that this was added after publication of the Integrated Rail Plan in 2021. Stalybridge-Huddersfied will not happen until the mid-2030s and Northern Powerhouse Rail "will follow on from TRU, likely in the 2040s". The only elements relating to NPR that are within the scope of TRU are those directly along the line of route, such as the third track.

DfT has set a target for an additional 15 freight paths a day. "We are working to develop infrastructure and timetabling to support this aspiration."

The route is to be gauge cleared to W12. This will require four structural interventions: track lowering in Stalybridge and Scout tunnels, alterations to Katherine Street tunnel between Ashton and Stalybridge, and Wright's overbridge north of Mossley. Gauge clearance will not be complete until the early 2030s. "We can't do these any earlier as we've used up all our engineering access to carry out the works at Huddersfield."

My notes on gauge clearance: no mention of any works required to Standedge. Not stated what "alterations" are required to Katherine Street or whether they were done when it was electrified, but I get the impression they weren't. I guess Wright's bridge is the one shown on the Manchester A-Z as Wright Mill Bridge, a very minor bridge.

The two big tranches of funding released so far, adding up to £6.5 billion of the projected £11 billion total cost, followed approval of two "Programme Business Cases", PBC1 and PBC2. Between the dates of these, the project achieved efficiencies totalling £1.5 billion. This has allowed procurement of 29 five-car trains for TPE to be brouught within the TRU budget. There will be two more PBC submissions in the coming years.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

The timescales seem to get ever longer.

Very frustrating - probably wont happen in my lifetime now.

In #7771 I quoted RAIL magazine saying Colton to Church Fenton should be energised in July, but this feature says it will not be linked up with the ECML wiring at Colton until Christmas.

In this scheme that is not a huge disappointment to be honest.

DfT has set a target for an additional 15 freight paths a day. "We are working to develop infrastructure and timetabling to support this aspiration."

Good - great news more freight by rail.
Bad -yet another change to scope which causes cost rises and delays.

The route is to be gauge cleared to W12. This will require four structural interventions: track lowering in Stalybridge and Scout tunnels, alterations to Katherine Street tunnel between Ashton and Stalybridge, and Wright's overbridge north of Mossley. Gauge clearance will not be complete until the early 2030s. "We can't do these any earlier as we've used up all our engineering access to carry out the works at Huddersfield."

Mainly good I suppose -but again, changes to scope cost time and money.

 

[Danfilm007]

...This has allowed procurement of 29 five-car trains for TPE to be brouught within the TRU budget. There will be two more PBC submissions in the coming years.

That is interesting, so it's more than covering the loss of the Mk5s. Is this going to be a separate tender to the ones out now? Or an infill purchase of IEPs?

 

[zwk500]

@GRALISTAIR has summed it up pretty well, however I do find some specific points interesting.

DfT has set a target for an additional 15 freight paths a day. "We are working to develop infrastructure and timetabling to support this aspiration."

There is a perennial obsession with governments setting targets and then going completely AWOL. It is a really bad move to just declare 'we need x paths' without any thought to the strategic delivery of the overall rail system for the country. Where are these paths between? What cargo are they carrying? Is the demand sustainable to justify long-term investment? Do FOCs have the necessary resources to run these services? and so on...

The route is to be gauge cleared to W12.[...] Gauge clearance will not be complete until the early 2030s. "We can't do these any earlier as we've used up all our engineering access to carry out the works at Huddersfield."

Is this another scope change, did people not realise what was involved, or is it simply a case that the jobs are just too big? Given clearances for electrification come very close to the required W12 clearances I'm slightly surprised additional works are needed, and that they will take 6-10 years to deliver.

 

[snowball]

In the January issue of MR, Roger Ford discussed some of the recommendations of a group set up by DfT a year earlier to review the cost of the TRU and find 15% savings. There was some further discussion of this in the last part of the new feature, which I didn't include in my post above. The TRU MD, Neil Holm, says that achieving the 15% would require "removals from the project scope". He is dubious about the recommendation to go direct to signals-away ETCS on parts of the route such as Stalybridge-Huddersfield.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

There is a perennial obsession with governments setting targets and then going completely AWOL.

To me the biggest frustration of all - and not just in connection with railways.

 

[InOban]

Willing the end without willing the means.

 

[snowball]

Press release re Garforth footbridge.

Major milestone reached for UK’s first ‘Beacon’ bridge at Garforth as bridge deck installed

Passengers at Garforth station can look forward to soon being able to have a safe, step-free route between platforms for the first time as installation of a new accessible bridge reaches a major milestone.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

assengers at Garforth station can look forward to soon being able to have a safe, step-free route between platforms for the first time as installation of a new accessible bridge reaches a major milestone.

Engineers craned in the deck of the bridge under cover of darkness to connect the two already installed lift shafts to each other. At the same time, the additional link span which connects the station to Aberford Road was also installed, maintaining the previous entrance to platform 1.

The stations’ ‘Beacon’ bridge, so-called due to the striking design of its two lift shafts, is the first of its kind in the UK and will give rail passengers a safe, step-free option at the station for the first time.

The £6m project, part of the UK Government’s Access for All scheme, started in May 2023. The footbridge is expected to be open to passengers by the end of June, making the experience of passengers at the station better.

Additional work to allow the lifts to open can only be carried out following the removal of the temporary footbridge. This work is expected to be completed by the end of August.

While the work is being finished, alternative routes between the platforms continue to be clearly signposted.

 

[modernrail]

We are meant to have decarbonised the whole of the UK 10 years after TRU is delivered. Interesting. Let’s hope our ambition is more significant in other areas that it is in terms of TRU delivery. It is nuts really bearing in mind the project should have expected a significant dividend from the cancellation of most of HS2.

 

[1D53]

I might be remembering wrong Harvey but I believe the plan is to smooth out the curves on the mainline outside the depot increasing line speed, at the same time the depot will be remodeled

Correct. The main lines will curve right round to significantly increase the line speed.

 

[Ploughman]

Re Garforth.
Does the road bridge need any work?

 

[1D53]

It was not in the Leeds to Micklefield TWAO so I suspect not.

 

[Bald Rick]

We are meant to have decarbonised the whole of the UK 10 years after TRU is delivered.

Net Zero and decarbonised are not the same.

But realisitically (and sadly) I don’t think net zero will be achieved in that timescale, short of a massive governemt subsidised programme of building insulation and heat pump installation.