STALYBRIDGE will see the first electric trains run to the town’s station by the end of the year, it has been confirmed.
But work will need to be done on two tunnels as part of a multi-billion pound project.
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will see the line from Manchester to York electrified in a scheme that will take years.
But the first phase from Manchester Victoria to Stalybridge has been completed and senior engineer Mark Ashton revealed the results will be seen by the end of 2024.
He said: “We’ve recently finished off electrifying the section between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge.
“The equipment – steel gantries and overhead wires – is up and they’re now energised.
“By the end of December, we’ll see the first electric trains operating to Stalybridge from Victoria. It’ll be a Northern service initially and TransPennine Express services will come along later.
“A lot of the infrastructure hasn’t been touched or upgraded for the best part of a few decades.
“It’s not had the same level of investment as other parts of the country. The Government now has recognised that as part of its Levelling Up agenda.”
Now the section to Stalybridge has been completed, work is now starting on the stretch that takes in Stalybridge and Scout Tunnels, as well as Mossley.
As well as the proposed move of that town’s station, designs are still being drawn up as to how the work on the underpasses will look, along with what disruption any work – likely to be done at night – may cause.
But the clearance area around the trains and the tunnel roofs will need to be as big as possible.
Mark added: “There will be disruption, that’s something we can’t avoid.”
Rachel Thomas, project director for the Stalybridge-Huddersfield section of the TRU, added more detail.
She said: “We have to do some work in both Staybridge tunnel, just as you come out of the station, and Scout Tunnel, which comes straight after it, to allow freight trains to come through and to allow freight trains that are big enough to have refrigerated wagons on them to come through.
“That will take place, then we’ll attached overhead wires to the top of the tunnel.”
This is great news, but their are still ares in the North of England that have extremely poor service levels that aren’t getting any investment from Government, in particular the East Lancashire rail line between Burnley and Colne which has one train per hour if your lucky! The service to Preston from Colne is slow using our dated rolling stock, SELRAP which has been campaigning since 2001 to reopen the Colne to Skipton rail line still hasn’t received any Government investment even though the Business case has now been proven!
This rail line is one of the lowest graded Pennine crossing and avoids Manchester especially for Freight, it would give access to over 1.2 million people faster connections to Leeds, and Bradford with trains every 30 minutes, within 50 minutes from Colne to Leeds, at present it’s 2.5 hrs if you took the train for a journey thats only 28 miles.
£300 million is all it would take, not billion that all the rest are costing.
“Levelling Up” is a sick joke. Minuscule amounts are being spent in the North for tiny service improvements, and the approved works are taking an age to be accomplished. Work should have begun by now on the Skipton-Colne link, but it is back in the long grass. I don’t trust this government (or the next) to make the radical improvements necessary…
Comparing our rail systems throughout the world, to say we pioneered the railways we have now been left in some deserted sidings, a great great pity!!!
If things are not in London or surrounding areas then successive governments are not interested. To them the North begins at Watford.
Yet again no rail improvement for Bradford.
The car has to be KING, because life is too short to take the train to Manchester.
Appalling a city the size of Bradford with no rail improvement in decades.
3rd or 4th class service.