East Lancs Railway Clifton to Bury

[Philip]

I was wondering if there is much likelihood of the East Lancs Railway reopening between Clifton and Bury? What's more would it potentially serve good use?

Just thinking, it would surely replace the tram as the quickest route into Manchester from Bury and from the bits I've seen, the line doesn't look a complete lost cause in terms of the feasibility of restoration; most of the structures and the cuttings are still intact and not filled in.

 

[Foggycorner]

Only a very large chunck missing at the radcliffe end and the small matter of the M60 crossing or are the trains to get up speed to jump the gap, haha

 

[Flying Snail]

Far too much in the way of that happening, needing to run over Metrolink metals, new bridge over M60, alignment built on in Radcliffe.

There was a plan to use the existing link to Network Rail east of Heywood for ELR trains to connect at Castleton, seems to have gone quiet lately though. This would only be useful for ELR heritage use, even if the direct curve south of Castleton was used and the line run at proper rail speeds it wouldn't be much if at all faster than Metrolink.

 

[Philip]

Far too much in the way of that happening, needing to run over Metrolink metals, new bridge over M60, alignment built on in Radcliffe.

There was a plan to use the existing link to Network Rail east of Heywood for ELR trains to connect at Castleton, seems to have gone quiet lately though. This would only be useful for ELR heritage use, even if the direct curve south of Castleton was used and the line run at proper rail speeds it wouldn't be much if at all faster than Metrolink.

Was the route via Radcliffe and Clifton a quicker way of getting between Bury and Manchester as it was before closure, compared to the Metrolink route now, out of interest? What was the linespeed before closure?