When cancelled HS2 money was reasigned to Northern levelling up, I wrote to the DfT suggesting £120M (costed in 2016 at £99M) to electrify the Harrogate Loop which would mop up redundant 323s reducing journey times by 1 minute per station stop on acceleration alone, release 9 diesel units, increase iine speed to 75mph and allow London trains to operate on electric.
That would be an ongoing cost whereas the £48m funding is one off
You might be able to run some connectors into the rail services, but can you provide an example you had in mind of somewhere that needs it but that doesn't today have a bus service to a station on the route.
Whilst I'm not going to defend the Department for Transport as a Paragon of Wisdom, the fact that they didn't immediately follow the advice of a random letter is hardly a condemnation. They probably get dozens of letters and emails from ordinary people with a bee in their bonnet about a particular pet scheme of theirs... if they'd done anything more than a simple "thanks but no thanks" that really would be newsworthy. I'm slightly disappointed they didn't ask for tips on how to get wires up so cheaply though!
This is one of the reasons there wasn't a through service towards Leeds in recent years, despite there being one towards Sheffield until a few years ago. Though according to discussions a couple of months back on the Trans-Pennine Upgrade thread, the arrangement of the through lines at Huddersfield station will be, from the station building, Fast, Slow, Fast, Slow. Rather than the originally assumed Fast, Fast, Slow, Slow. Still more conflicts than you'd like for very little benefit.
If we had a decent integrated transport policy, I'd like to see something like a dedicated rail link bus service (with through ticketing) between Holmfirth and Honley station. The recently(-ish) vacated Team Pennine storage depot adjacent to the station would be ideal for conversion into an interchange. It's currently leased to South Pennine Community Transport, but I'm sure an alternative site for their minibuses could be found.
Google Maps suggests plenty of options for bus + train for Holmfirth - Sheffield, connecting at either Penistone, Holmfirth or Brockholes. Not too shabby at ~1h35-ish, vs 1h03 to Brockholes itself.
They are, apart from poor connections between bus and train, and the lack of through ticketing. Your Holmfirth example isn't too bad but connections at DBD for Skelmanthorpe are poor and/or not guaranteed.
Currently with £2 on bus max and free concessionary travel renders through ticketing fairly moot - but DBD bus is thrice hourly: X1 which is quick and then 2 of D1 that are darn slow to Shat (distance 2 miles as crow flies-ish), but not so bad to Clayton West (which D1 goes via, first).
Yeah, but i don't think it brings much to have that. Bus needs a turning circle at Honley, no more and it can do that with the rest of the road.
Am I right in thinking that the X1 still uses the stops on the main road in Denby Dale, rather than going up the hill to the 'Interchange' (which is a rather flattering name for a bus shelter and turning circle)? Back in Arriva days (when it was run from their Wakefield depot) it used to serve the turning circle. Up until around 2008/9 it even ran through to Leeds as (iirc) the 484.
No, it’s does the interchange according to the map on bustimes.org, and did so last time I used it (March ’23) and the previous time, 2022
The coal traffic was not the driver for double track retention into the late 80s: the Clayton West branch shut in 1983. Back in 1981, traffic on the whole line was low - 7 a day to Huddersfield/Penistone/Sheffield, and 4 a day to Clayton West - but freight would've been one or fewer per day down to Skelmanthorpe for the colliery.
Apologies for quoting a six month old post, but this is a relevant point I'm sure. However with boundary changes at the next General Election this will change. For example Denby Dale and Shepley which are currently in the Dewsbury constituency (one of the Tory marginals) will be moved into the new constituency of Ossett and Denby Dale.
There still is a daily Sheffield-Barnsley Northern early morning service that turns back and heads South at Barnsley.
This is true, and it also deals with the capacity issue getting into Sheffield. Don't get me wrong, a second hourly service to Barnsley only is a step in the right direction and will be useful for myself and relatives who live at the northern end of the route. My only concern is that if usage isn't great due to not serving the big draws of Meadowhall and Sheffield, the additional service could then be withdrawn... no doubt this failure would then be used as a reason to not try again even if the Sheffield problem later gets solved.
How also would the 2tph local service be maintained between Sheffield and Barnsley? And how would that train clear the line for the following semi-fast if it didn't continue on somewhere else at Barnsley?
I'm not sure what you're asking here- if the second Huddersfield service was to terminate at Barnsley, the service beyond there would be unchanged. Some of the funding announced today is for a study towards adding a turnback facility at Barnsley. I'm pretty sure that services from the north can already terminate and turn back in the existing platforms as this has been done previously when the line beyond Barnsley was under a possession. This would suggest that any additional facility would be in addition to the existing layout- presumably either a bay platform or a turnback siding to the south, either of which would not affect a following Sheffield service.
Running through to Meadowhall would certainly be better from a user point of view, and may even be a more efficient use of the additional stock that would be needed anyway for the second hourly service. Turning back beyond Meadowhall to head to Doncaster probably wouldn't be workable due to how congested the lines through Meadowhall are, and reversals away from stations are probably not desirable.
Ah, yes I see your point now. Yes, I’ve seen a football special arrive from the North and return North thinking about it.
and still only the one road into the town from the north/east side, under the Woodhead line bridge, seems worse in the other direction - Penistone is literally hard to leave.
I was surprised to see the Tesco on the site of the old cattle market - I know it's been there a while but my last memory of that spot was of a bull going nuts and wrecking the farmer's car on market day, and then I spent time watching the auction, mid 1980s.
