April is here and the main contract is about to begin. There are two Community Information Events next week at Dore and Bamford, see below.
6 weekend blockades are being announced by Network Rail.
29 hours 28/29th May, 00.15 - 05.15
Then 54 hours for each of 5 consecutive weekends, from 2/4th July until 30th July - 2nd August - all 23.00 until 06.15.
Certainly more blockades to come after that but at least the work is now under way after over 20 years of planning.
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Here's the latest news from tonight's Community Information Event.
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It seems that by August there'll be a second connected track in place through Dore & Totley station. I gather it won't be usable by service trains before May 2023 when the Dore loop has all been connected but can be used by engineering trains constructing the Dore loop work.
During the blockades Northern should run shuttles from Piccadilly to Edale then mini-bus to Hope, and possibly coach from Chinley to Sheffield. They may be able to run single line shuttle from Sheffield to Hope - watch that space! TPE should divert via Huddesrfield. EMR may be bus transfer to Stockport. This is all still in planning.
Dore station car park capacity will be severely reduced until the footbridge and platform work is complete.
We must be making progress, there's now a specific downloadable App to follow the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade, available for Google Play;
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.uk.northern.hopevalley
And iPhone;
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/hope-valley-railway-upgrade/id1610589014