Greybeard33
Established Member
Without P15 & P16 it would certainly be problematic to route an additional Sheffield service through Piccadilly. The services already planned take up all the available paths through P13/P14, so it would have to be a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul". If Liverpool were to be the western terminus, for instance, I suppose one option might be to split the Liverpool to Airport via Warrington service at Piccadilly, with the through service rerouted to Sheffield and a replacement shuttle between Piccadilly and the Airport. But the two semi-fasts on the CLC line have to be evenly spaced 30 minutes apart to leave gaps for the stoppers, whereas I doubt that it would be feasible to have the same spacing between the new service and the Nottingham/Norwich through the Hope Valley. It would also be difficult to find suitable paths through Slade Lane and Stockport.I attended 3 rounds of public consultation about the Hope Valley Capacity Scheme and also the public inquiry and have masses of paper produced in support of all of them. I note that documentary evidence is absent regarding where the extra service would start and finish.
The question was asked more than once and the answer was always evasive. Network Rail is tasked by the DfT to provide extra paths and capacity. When they exist it's someone else's job to decide whether to run any extra services, on what routes and by who.
However, suggestions were made of likely start and finish points. Simple Piccadilly to Sheffield wasn't the assumption and the question has been asked of TOCs since.
It's easy enough to suggest places but capacity on tracks to go west of Manchester is only part of the issue. Platform capacity for terminating trains is another. We know turn round times are critical to operate reliable services.
In my previous post I mentioned Chester, Blackpool and Liverpool as possible destinations. More recently Liverpool is the place I've heard suggested most often, always verbally.
On the east side destinations such as Leeds, Hull, Lincoln and Leicester were suggested. 3 of these could fit with existing Northern services.
But first we need to get started on this modest scheme which was being planned at least 15 years ago. The time it's taken doesn't auger well for completion of Platforms 15 and 16.
Resolve one bottleneck and it's inevitable we'll move the problem down the line.
It might be easier to route the new Sheffield service via Marple, rather than Stockport, terminating in the low numbered platforms at Piccadilly. Some terminal platform capacity has been released by rerouting TPE services around the Ordsall Chord, but on the other hand there are the additional planned Northern services to Greenbank and Hazel Grove that will terminate in the Piccadilly bays, as well as the second hourly service to Buxton that started in May.