The alignment is chosen to allow for practical construction, avoid existing buildings and allow a good speed on the fast lines. The flyover is in what is today the angle between the Leeds and Wakefield lines. The new fast lines approaching from the Huddersfield direction are to the south of the existing lines, then go over the flyover, then run on the SE side of the existing line on new bridges over the Calder & Hebble navigation and River Calder, then rejoin the existing Leeds line near the tip mentioned in some recent posts.Is the 4-tracking plans around Ravensthorope on a different alignment to the current line towards Dewsbury? If so, is this for construction purposes/line speed reasons etc..
I have seen this before but not sure how accurate it still is. For example the recent Stalybrige remodelling does not allow for the 70/80mph running that the chart showsere's a nice speed chart I found after digging through documents on Network Rail about this. Blue is current and Orange is after TRU.
Has the planned (above) profile changed. I thought the speed on the new alignment was going to be 110mph, I’m sure Don Coffey said it was going to be 110mph on one of his in-cab video.Here's a nice speed chart I found after digging through documents on Network Rail about this. Blue is current and Orange is after TRU.
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Has the planned (above) profile changed. I thought the speed on the new alignment was going to be 110mph, I’m sure Don Coffey said it was going to be 110mph on one of his in-cab video.
edit:- Just rechecked, and he does suggest that the new fast lines from Huddersfield to (near) Dewsbury will be 110mph.
I think you’re right, it looks like an early “potential“ benefit diagram, which has seen subsequent changes since first published. It would be interesting to see an newer version.I think that diagram may be the same version we've seen before, and from a few years ago. For example it doesn't show any 110 until east of Neville Hill, and shows 60 at Miles Platting curve.
It will be 40 minutes at best.That's gonna feel scary, doing those at over the ton. I hope Manchester to Leeds can be brought down to 30-35min after all of this, especially if stopping only in HUD.
Yes. I don't want to take the thread off topic but only new build is likely to be able to get closer to 30 minutes and that isn't going to happen in my lifetime.It will be 40 minutes at best.
It will be 40 minutes at best.
Seeing a newer version might be depressing.I think you’re right, it looks like an early “potential“ benefit diagram, which has seen subsequent changes since first published. It would be interesting to see an newer version.
TRU promised 35 minutes after upgrades in track alignments, electrification and increased lie speeds.It will be 40 minutes at best.
Even if it separates stopping and non-stopping services? And allows more services to run than at present, reliably?£Billions spent on a new, straighter alignment to save 5 minutes on journey time is a complete waste.
Yes, we are talking of £billions saved by not building NPR.Even if it separates stopping and non-stopping services? And allows more services to run than at present, reliably?
I read that in Modern Railways this month. There wasn't much detail quoted from the report, but it seemed to ask some good questions. Anyone found the document? One of the things it said was how much demand there was for shorter distance travel to adjacent centres (centre to centre, or local stop to centre) whereas the focus of the upgrade was more skewed to high speed alignments which is better for express long distance.Seeing a newer version might be depressing.
The Government's TPU Cost and Performance Efficiency challenge Panel, tasked with finding 15% savings. has suggested the dropping of the sixth path and third track between Huddersfield and Marsden. They have queried that apart from the top 5 linespeed improvements, the remainder only save 65 seconds but cost £500million. An easy way to save half a billion?
There's also conflicts removed at Bradley Junction as the curve from Brighouse will only connect to the slow lines, and removal of the awkward arrangement of the three track section between Mirfield East and Thornhill LNW junctions. At present cross-Pennine services are severely hindered by freight trains using the bidirectional centre road to access the lines towards Healey Mills.Yes, we are talking of £billions saved by not building NPR.
Quad tracking between Dewsbury and Huddersfield is for separation of stopping and non-stopping services. There are three stations on this section where non-stopping trains can overtake.
Only the TPE units until December.
Yes it does, northern from may after the testing later this month.I think this is actually saying that the ACPO only applies to TPE trains.
Might go to 323/331 operation when the wigan to bolton via westhoughton line is electrified and terminate at north western.I don't think Northern have any trains that can do automatic power changeover. Their only bimodes are the 769s which i'm pretty sure are manual changeover only.
Tasks complete for our #TRU teams working these last 76 hours into New Year 2024 at #Mirfield station in West Yorkshire.
️Reposition over 650m of track on a new alignment.
To make room, demolish part of platform 2, which will come out of use.
Works to remove two bridge beams and install two new beams on Station Road bridge.
It's a little worse than that in the panel's report! The proposal from the report (per Modern Railways article) is to reduce the 3 track plan to no extra track - between Huddersfield and Marsden.It would be silly to reduce the trackage from 4 to 3. The quad tracking is primarily about capacity, not journey times. Having express trains be able to pass locals for such a distance will be hugely beneficial for journey times, capacity and reliability!
My hope is this nonsense will be shot down, especially given detailed design and planning permission seemingly has been done for the project?
Crossing over at the bottom of the incline (Huddersfield) means the freight can't take a run at the incline and will probably be slower all the way up. Doing so at Marsden, it will decelerate rapidly as it is still climbing, and after crossing over it will soon enter the level section through Standege tunnel where it can pick up speed relatively soon. So I'd say Huddersfield is the larger problem.The new logic in the report is that the freight may need to slow or stop to wait for the overtaking passenger train. Doing that in 'Huddersfield station area' (per modern railways, although I think it might be more the rejoining at Marsden that is the problem rather than the crossing over), means doing so on an incline (at either place) and being slow.
Agreed - seems to me it's not been fully thought through. It's also fairly steep ascending most of the way from Mirfield to Huddersfield where the freight would be trying to use the "fast" line. The ideal situation would be a fast crossover just west of Huddersfield station and speeds to allow freight to get through the station and join the two-track section with the minimum of braking. But there are probably all sorts of reasons that won't work.Seems a bad idea to me because all freight comes via the Wakefield line - which is planned to go under the flyover at Ravensthorpe. Putting a crossover just east of the flyover means you don't need to cross the eastbound fast so that's the most sensible place in the area compared to further west. However, that is going to impact the width of the railway at that point (road overbridge, cutting) but more critically add 6 miles of freight using the fast line (100mph at that point) - which can't be good.
It might even be cheaper to buy a batch of electric locos and hand them over to freight operators on the condition they use them for all trains on this route.OTOH, make the freight use the wires and the acceleration question is less an issue.
Today!
Yes, I wondered about that. Some of the Drax empties come that way, back to Liverpool but I can't think of anything else regular, east to west.Which "freight" is being discussed here? At the moment barely any freight uses the lines through Huddersfield, as almost all of it runs via Brighouse and the Calder Valley anyway.