Realistically when is the earliest date enthusiasts for this project would expect it to be operational?
I ask because railway projects take a very long time even when favoured by whoever is in control. I can't precisely date it because the information came to me from someone who is no longer with us, but he saw plans for redoubling at Dore on the walls of Railtrack's Manchester offices soon after they were formed out of British Rail, certainly by late 1990s. It has taken at least 25 years to get that delivered, including the new loops at Bamford and Dore pus resignalling. Over the 25 years of planning and replanning costs along the way must have added a lot to any figures quoted for the current contract. Over those 25 years passenger and freight traffic has increased and changed. After 6 weeks of operation it's too early to say how effective it will be for both passenger and freight traffic. If it hasn't improved matters in 12 months time that might give a very, very little more weight to this proposal.
We already know that the Hope cement works is due to close in 2042 removing that traffic from the line. (Parts of Tunstead Quarry are within the Peak Park and are planned to be worked out by the same date, but there's plenty more outside the Park.) Rail works best with train loads over long distances. Lorry loads are best over short distances, for smaller orders, from quarries without rail access and/or to customers without rail access. The products coming from the quarries are also more varied than some may imagine so there may not be a lot of scope for removing significant extra amounts off the roads. Currently quite a lot is going to HS2 related contracts.
Peak Rail's original intention was to open the entire line from Buxton to Matlock. Those with long memories may recall the heady days of heritage steam operation at Buxton and the way in the 1980s we were encouraged to donate or buy shares to build a bridge across Charles Street to get access to go south. It was built, although that came to nothing when the site was sold off for a water bottling plant. That's been and gone again for over a decade now. I may once have enthused about trains to Bakewell by 2010, but that was wildly over optimistic, from either end!
Looking at the line in detail there are so many difficult places where large sums would be needed to progress relatively short distances meeting modern heavy freight and passenger requirements. The one that's defeated Peak Rail all these years is the demolished A6 bridge at Rowsley. The problem is not just replacing the bridge over the road. To meet modern standards it would have to be built higher above the road requiring a higher embankment in both directions off the new bridge making potentially more difficult gradients.
But there's another issue, the Grade II listed Rowsley Viaduct over the River Derwent is within 100 metres immediately to the west of the A6, see;
http://www.forgottenrelics.org/bridges/rowsley-viaduct/
If the track across the road has to be higher it would not easily fit across that grade II listed viaduct. That's to progress a mile beyond the end of Peak Rail's laid rails. The Haddon Estate is then opposed to the railway’s reinstatement so getting to Bakewell is rather a challenge. Running a line through the old repurposed Bakewell station would be tricky too. When I was filled with enthusiasm for getting there I hadn't looked at the practical details, from either end. I have now. Not totally insurmountable but difficult, time consuming and very expensive.
All along the line there are other awkward details that wouldn't be cheap to fix.
Across the country there are frequent landslips where Victorian infrastructure is collapsing even when regularly maintained and monitored. The money that would be needed for this project needs allocating to maintaining all the existing routes and making more modest interventions to ease bottlenecks - especially around central Manchester and the approaches from all directions!
