Blackpool - Manchester Electrification

[Joseph_Locke]

It also worth noting that there may not be a common solution for the "now" and the "later" layouts, e.g. there will be one or more structures that are "temporary". It was certainly true at Huyton at one point and at Bolton East Junction it is driving the thinking about the works are delivered to avoid abortive OLE structures.

 

[TBSchenker]

It's gone quite quiet actually about the planned Platform 5 at Bolton. I had hoped to see some track work take place whilst they had some weekend blockades, but alas none.

 

[thealexweb]

It's gone quite quiet actually about the planned Platform 5 at Bolton. I had hoped to see some track work take place whilst they had some weekend blockades, but alas none.

I had expected the car park to have closed too. Yet it is still open, I guess that's a good thing and a bad thing.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Not much to see of the recent landslip at Chorley, on the Up line at least.
There's a 20mph TSR through Chorley Tunnel, and water visible on the new slab track.
No sign of any Christmas electrification work anywhere.
The 30mph restriction between Kearsley and Moses Gate remains, presumably until the next round of work on Jan 23/24.

 

[L+Y]

The Stalybridge line is closed, but I imagine it will be for clearance work (bridges etc), or maybe the start of resignalling.
They haven't properly restarted Manchester-Preston yet.

I travel on the Stalybridge-Vic line fairly often, and a good number of the bridges look to me to have been fairly recently modified: lots of concrete abutments and new NR green bridges on old foundations. When was this work done?

 

[snowball]

I travel on the Stalybridge-Vic line fairly often, and a good number of the bridges look to me to have been fairly recently modified: lots of concrete abutments and new NR green bridges on old foundations. When was this work done?

Over the last couple of years - two of them in the Ashton area have only been finished in the last month or two.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I travel on the Stalybridge-Vic line fairly often, and a good number of the bridges look to me to have been fairly recently modified: lots of concrete abutments and new NR green bridges on old foundations. When was this work done?

I think bridge work has been going on for about a year.
Seems to be being done one-by-one rather than a blitz like Bolton-Euxton.
Of course they now have longer to do it with the wiring delay.
I did see a date of 2019 for resignalling, but that seems late to me.
They are also supposed to be doing "line speed improvements" too, but what that entails I don't know.
Straightening the curves through Ashton maybe (only 45mph to the east).

 

[snowball]

Pre-electrification bridgeworks between Victoria and Stalybridge have been going on for over two years. I think Osborne Street, Collyhurst, and Henrietta Street, Ashton, were the first, as described here:

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.c...art-of-manchester-stalybridge-electrification

Among others that have been done was the raising of Rochdale Road bridge, about a mile out of Victoria, a year ago. At least one bridge was just demolished, Lumb Lane, Droylsden, which was adjacent to the more moden Littlemoss Road bridge.

Some have been mentioned in the Trans-Pennine electrification thread.

 

[absolutelymilk]

Has there been much going on over Christmas? Or has the flooding stopped work?

 

[Chrisyd]

Announcements on Northern Rail Website, state the forthcoming Victoria closures on a Sunday are to allow for Electrification works, does this mean that gantries etc between Victoria and Salford Crescent on the Salford Central line will be going up as surely the other route into Victoria is already electrified?

http://www.northernrail.org/news/7830
What is happening?
Network Rail are continuing to electrify the railway in the north west of England. In order
for them to access various areas of track they need to close the line. Every Sunday from 24 January to 17 April train services into and out of Manchester Victoria will be suspended to allow them to continue their electrification work.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Announcements on Northern Rail Website, state the forthcoming Victoria closures on a Sunday are to allow for Electrification works, does this mean that gantries etc between Victoria and Salford Crescent on the Salford Central line will be going up as surely the other route into Victoria is already electrified?

http://www.northernrail.org/news/7830
What is happening?
Network Rail are continuing to electrify the railway in the north west of England. In order
for them to access various areas of track they need to close the line. Every Sunday from 24 January to 17 April train services into and out of Manchester Victoria will be suspended to allow them to continue their electrification work.

All routes through Victoria are closed on Sundays, and on Saturdays it's just the Liverpool route (trains mostly diverted via Oxford Road).
I suspect the Saturday closures are to allow 54-hour possessions for Ordsall Chord construction.
You'd hope the Sunday closures are for OHLE work towards Salford Crescent, but they wouldn't need to close Victoria and eastwards just for that.
Maybe a raft of bridge work?

 

[snowball]

Trinity Way, which will be bridged by the Chord, is closed north-east-bound this Saturday daytime, and Hampson Street is closed on Saturday night, according to the NR NP Twitter feed. That seems likely to be for something related to the Chord.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

All routes through Victoria are closed on Sundays, and on Saturdays it's just the Liverpool route (trains mostly diverted via Oxford Road).
I suspect the Saturday closures are to allow 54-hour possessions for Ordsall Chord construction.
You'd hope the Sunday closures are for OHLE work towards Salford Crescent, but they wouldn't need to close Victoria and eastwards just for that.
Maybe a raft of bridge work?

Sooner or later they need to do Victoria to Miles Platting

 

[Geeves]

I could well be that I wasn't paying attention but there seem to be a lot more bases on the south side of Salford Crescent that I think went in on the last possession.

Also as you go past the chord site everyday more bridge girders are appearing, I think these might be for the section over Trinity way from the current Chatmoss lines. Its all go!

 

[Greybeard33]

All routes through Victoria are closed on Sundays, and on Saturdays it's just the Liverpool route (trains mostly diverted via Oxford Road).
I suspect the Saturday closures are to allow 54-hour possessions for Ordsall Chord construction.
You'd hope the Sunday closures are for OHLE work towards Salford Crescent, but they wouldn't need to close Victoria and eastwards just for that.
Maybe a raft of bridge work?

Sooner or later they need to do Victoria to Miles Platting

According to NRE, there are works between Victoria and Moston on 31 Jan and all the Feb Sundays - see e,g, http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=31%2F01%2F2016&TOC=nt. Then on Sundays 6, 13 & 20 March there are works further east, with bustitution all the way to Littleborough http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=06%2F03%2F2016&TOC=nt.

The Salford Crescent-Bolton line is completely closed on 23/24 & 30/31 Jan for completion of the works around Farnworth.

Trinity Way, which will be bridged by the Chord, is closed north-east-bound this Saturday daytime, and Hampson Street is closed on Saturday night, according to the NR NP Twitter feed. That seems likely to be for something related to the Chord.

Ordsall Lane Junction is completely closed on the weekends of 9/10 & 16/17 Jan, with services from the west diverted to/via Victoria (except ATW N Wales services terminate at Warrington [Sat] or are diverted via Stockport [Sun]) http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=10%2F01%2F2016&TOC=nt

 

[Class 170101]

Ordsall Lane Junction is completely closed on the weekends of 9/10 & 16/17 Jan, with services from the west diverted to/via Victoria (except ATW N Wales services terminate at Warrington [Sat] or are diverted via Stockport [Sun]) http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx?TravelDate=10%2F01%2F2016&TOC=nt

I saw this and wondered why ATW were only running via Northwich on the Sunday. Seems to be a similar amount of use of the line by other operators on both Saturday and Sunday.

If not then why not extend the Rail Replacement Bus shown between Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Piccadilly to Warrington Central for alternative operators train services to Manchester?

 

[Greybeard33]

I saw this and wondered why ATW were only running via Northwich on the Sunday. Seems to be a similar amount of use of the line by other operators on both Saturday and Sunday.

Well, on those Sundays the lines from Stockport to Hazel Grove, Stoke on Trent and Wilmslow are all closed as well. So apart from the Mid-Cheshire line services (including the diverted ATWs) there is only a Northern shuttle service using the line between Piccadilly and Stockport. It might be more difficult to squeeze extra paths into the normal Saturday timetable.

 

[thealexweb]

Has there been much going on over Christmas? Or has the flooding stopped work?

As far as we are aware no electrification work happened during Christmas and New Year.

 

[LDECRexile]

Happy New Year

I went on my first jaunt of 2016 today, to have a shufty at Ordsall Lane Jct.

The photoset could well belong to any or all of this thread, Liv-Man thread or Ordsall Chord thread.

As usual it is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/albums/72157648767927083
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I've been increasingly concerned that the Combined Volume is too big; it takes ages to load, sort and save, for example.

I've decided that 1st January 2016 was a good break point, so I've closed the long-established album to new entries as from 31st Dec. It will, of course, remain accessible to all, but I won't add any 2016 material to it.

It will only change from now on if 1. anyone kindly sends me material taken before 1st Jan, or 2. anyone makes comments or asks questions about owt in it.

I realise that people may miss this posting or join at a future date, so I'll routinely include both the old and new albums when I add material. I'll start to fade that practice in February.

The 1945-2015 album is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/albums/72157648767927083

The 2016 album is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/albums/72157661069863633

The Liverpool-Manchester album is equally large and slow, but I don't expect a lot more action on it, so I'll keep it to just the one; it's here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/albums/72157648494725811

Hope this makes sense.

Dave

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Outstanding Dave. Sorry I missed you at xmas but was grand dadding

 

[LDECRexile]

Hello Graham

Family trumps trainspotting, no discussion. I'm sure we'll get together before too long.

Look what I've stumbled across while doing something completely unrelated :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/6180956736/in/photostream/

 

[QueensCurve]

Happy New Year

I went on my first jaunt of 2016 today, to have a shufty at Ordsall Lane Jct.

The photoset could well belong to any or all of this thread, Liv-Man thread or Ordsall Chord thread.

As usual it is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127646831@N03/albums/72157648767927083

From the pictures of Farnworth it would seem the bidirectional facility on the down line has not been retained. Is this the case?

 

[snowball]

From the pictures of Farnworth it would seem the bidirectional facility on the down line has not been retained. Is this the case?

It only existed between two temporary crossovers at Kearsley and Moses Gate, which, I think, are now secured out of use and due to be removed. I think Joseph has said one of them will be re-used at Bolton.

 

[Hophead]

Questions for those in the know (if such a person exists):

Is there any physical electrification work (excluding bridge-raising and the like) actually going on currently? Have Network Rail yet signed a contract with the new contractors (Carillion, I believe)? Is there even anybody left in North-West England who can do the work or are they all now working on the Great Western?

In summary, when is this project likely to complete?

 

[Philip Phlopp]

In summary, when is this project likely to complete?

The official line is 'within CP5' for completion. December 2017 (as opposed to March 2017) has been mentioned, press reports have focused on summer 2018 (don't trust anything based on the seasons though, especially summer which we don't get in Britain).

 

[absolutelymilk]

The official line is 'within CP5' for completion. December 2017 (as opposed to March 2017) has been mentioned, press reports have focused on summer 2018 (don't trust anything based on the seasons though, especially summer which we don't get in Britain).

Is that just for the Blackpool to Preston section or the Manchester to Preston section as well? i.e. is Manchester to Preston still on track for December 2017?

 

[Philip Phlopp]

Is that just for the Blackpool to Preston section or the Manchester to Preston section as well? i.e. is Manchester to Preston still on track for December 2017?

Manchester to Preston is still firmly planned for December 2017.

The delays that have accumulated on the Preston to Blackpool section are roughly equal to the difference between March 2017 and December 2017 (it was running behind schedule when Balfour Beatty were still contracted) but there were issues with the Balfour Beatty design work and they've left the project completely, having stayed on as design engineers initially.

That's why December 2017 is being mentioned, but I think, realistically, maybe May 2018 TT change, perhaps even December 2018 TT change will be the proper switchover, with introduction of electric services on an ad-hoc basis before then.

The additional complication with Preston to Blackpool is the resignalling/remodelling work (don't know much about it) and I've no idea if that's been delayed further.

 

[thealexweb]

Well this will screw over First Transpennine Express. All remaining North West services were meant to have reverted back to via Bolton by the December 2017 timetable. It is a franchise commitment to do so how can it happen now?

 

[AndyW33]

Well this will screw over First Transpennine Express. All remaining North West services were meant to have reverted back to via Bolton by the December 2017 timetable. It is a franchise commitment to do so how can it happen now?

That's confused me. If the Manchester-Bolton-Preston electrification is ready in December 2017, how does that prevent FTPE routing electric trains through Bolton by December 2017?

 

[thealexweb]

That's confused me. If the Manchester-Bolton-Preston electrification is ready in December 2017, how does that prevent FTPE routing electric trains through Bolton by December 2017?

When Transpennine's Scottish services originally transitioned over to running via Golburne Junction, it happened slowly over 12 months. Yes this was due to new stock as well but I imagine it would be a similar process going back again.