Amended: Transpennine Route Upgrade wraps up Christmas and …

Friday 5 Jan 2024

Amended: Transpennine Route Upgrade wraps up Christmas and New Year upgrades

Transpennine Route Upgrade successfully concludes Christmas and New Year Projects, paving the way for a greener, faster and more reliable railway. 

Despite difficult weather conditions, dedicated engineers worked around the clock throughout the festive season between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York to: 

  • Replace track points just outside of York, allowing trains to move between different railway lines 
  • Replace and upgrade the track through Mirfield 
  • Decommission platform 2 at Mirfield Station 
  • Install a new under-track crossing at Huddersfield Station 

While the above took place, extensive piling and electrification work was completed across various sections of the route, alongside signalling and telecommunication equipment testing.

The Hope Valley Railway Upgrade, which relieves historic bottlenecks between Manchester and Sheffield, also witnessed substantial upgrades notably the replacement of a bridge just north of Dore & Totley Station. 

Neil Holm, Managing Director for Transpennine Route Upgrade said:

“Some fantastic work has taken place over the festive period in very tough weather conditions. I’m really proud of everyone who played their part to get the jobs over the line. These achievements allow us to continue with a number of major upgrades this year, continuing TRU's progress and bringing us closer to fast, greener and more reliable electric trains running between Manchester and York”. 

The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a major, multi-billion-pound programme of railway improvements which will bring better journeys to passengers travelling across the Pennines between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.

Notes to Editors

General Key Facts on TRU

We’re transforming journeys across the North, better connecting towns and cities throughmore frequent, faster trains, running on a cleaner, greener and more reliable railway.

TRU will bring passengers:

• More trains to choose from and more seats. Our improvements will enable moretrains to run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York with up to six fastservices every hour between Leeds and Manchester and up to two stoppingservices for local connectivity.• Faster journeys so you can travel to your favourite towns and cities more quickly.Our fastest journey times are forecast to be 63-66 minutes between Manchesterand York and 41-42 minutes between Manchester and Leeds.• More reliable journeys with trains that run on-time• Better stations across the Transpennine route, bringing passengers a better travelexperience through improved, more accessible stations• Greener travel, reducing our carbon footprint and improving air quality. Our plansaim to save up to 87,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – supporting thegovernment’s Net Zero objectives. We’re also developing a proposal to move moregoods by rail (up to 15 more freight trains each day.)• Together, these freight trains are expected to remove over 1,000 lorries off the road each day.

TRU will bring local communities:

• Jobs for local people. Our workforce will be local, with 80% employment fromwithin a 40-mile radius of the route, and 60% employment from within a 25-mileradius. With a current workforce of around 2000 people, we estimate that coulddouble over the course of the programme. We’ll employ an apprentice for every£4million spent.• Improved natural environments near the railway through 10% biodiversity netgain across the route. This will create or enhance habitats for wildlife.The multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will bring this line into the21st century with 70-miles of fully electric, digital railway. Our plans include:• Electrifying the whole route between Manchester and York via Huddersfield andLeeds• Installing a new digital signalling system along the Transpennine route

• Doubling the number of tracks from two to four between Huddersfield andWesttown in Dewsbury.• Station improvements along the route to enhance customer experience, comfortand accessibility• Improving the railway on diversionary routes to allow more trains to run, to helpkeep passengers and freight moving while the core Transpennine route is closed todeliver essential upgrades. This will provide capacity and reliability improvementsfor future too.

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track[1], 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts[2] and the thousands of signals[3], level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations[4] while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies[5].

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway[6], so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan[7], to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrailVisit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk[8][9]

References

  1. ^ track (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  2. ^ bridges, tunnels and viaducts (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  3. ^ signals (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  4. ^ stations (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  5. ^ train operating companies (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  6. ^ a safe and reliable railway (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  7. ^ multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan (www.networkrail.co.uk)
  8. ^ @networkrail (twitter.com)
  9. ^ http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/ (www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk)

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