Halish Railway
Established Member
This thread has been made to discuss how and when the service pattern on the York to Manchester via Huddersfield line will change over the course of the TransPennine Route Upgrade's implementation.
This thread is also likely going to involve discussing how TransPennine Express will reintroduce services over the coming years, resulting in a timetable reminiscent of their pre-Covid offering (I.e. five fast trains per hour between Manchester and Leeds). Although I'd like to concentrate on the central Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly to Hull and York offering which will be directly effected by the TransPennine Route upgrade.
The first change we know for certain is that a half-hourly EMU-operated service from Stalybridge to Wigan North Western will begin in May 2024, replacing the current hourly Stalybridge to Southport service, as well as the between the hours Stalybridge to Manchester Victoria service, although that hasn't run since the start of the Pandemic.
The next significant way I can see a major timetable recast occurring is once the Huddersfield to Westtown works are complete, although I'm not sure when that will be. I hope that once that is complete we will see the introduction of a clock face half-hourly Huddersfield to Leeds stopping service, calling at all stations except maybe Cottingley if White Rose will take most of its custom. I also believe that the Leeds to Manchester Victoria and beyond via Brighouse service would also be accelerated, ideally calling at White Rose, Dewsbury and Mirfield where it will resume its current calling pattern. This is due to the fact that for the foreseeable future these trains will be operated by Diesel Multiple-Units, making them unsuitable for stopping services on a line where Express Passenger trains will take advantage of higher linespeeds.
The main debate regarding the implementation of a half-hourly Huddersfield to Leeds stopper is whether these services will continue to be operated by TPE or be handed back to Northern. I'd say that they should be handed back to Northern and worked by 195s as a stop gap until the line is completely electrified, at which point they could be worked by EMUs out of the same pool as the Leeds to Doncaster and Leeds Northwest Triangle services. If these services remain with TPE they'd have to be worked by 185s until electrification is complete and I don't see why TPE should procure EMUs designed for stopping services.
Apart from that does anyone else have any ideas for what services will work on the York to Manchester route once TRU is complete, when they will be implemented and what infrastructure works would be required to make the operation of these services possible?
This thread is also likely going to involve discussing how TransPennine Express will reintroduce services over the coming years, resulting in a timetable reminiscent of their pre-Covid offering (I.e. five fast trains per hour between Manchester and Leeds). Although I'd like to concentrate on the central Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly to Hull and York offering which will be directly effected by the TransPennine Route upgrade.
The first change we know for certain is that a half-hourly EMU-operated service from Stalybridge to Wigan North Western will begin in May 2024, replacing the current hourly Stalybridge to Southport service, as well as the between the hours Stalybridge to Manchester Victoria service, although that hasn't run since the start of the Pandemic.
The next significant way I can see a major timetable recast occurring is once the Huddersfield to Westtown works are complete, although I'm not sure when that will be. I hope that once that is complete we will see the introduction of a clock face half-hourly Huddersfield to Leeds stopping service, calling at all stations except maybe Cottingley if White Rose will take most of its custom. I also believe that the Leeds to Manchester Victoria and beyond via Brighouse service would also be accelerated, ideally calling at White Rose, Dewsbury and Mirfield where it will resume its current calling pattern. This is due to the fact that for the foreseeable future these trains will be operated by Diesel Multiple-Units, making them unsuitable for stopping services on a line where Express Passenger trains will take advantage of higher linespeeds.
The main debate regarding the implementation of a half-hourly Huddersfield to Leeds stopper is whether these services will continue to be operated by TPE or be handed back to Northern. I'd say that they should be handed back to Northern and worked by 195s as a stop gap until the line is completely electrified, at which point they could be worked by EMUs out of the same pool as the Leeds to Doncaster and Leeds Northwest Triangle services. If these services remain with TPE they'd have to be worked by 185s until electrification is complete and I don't see why TPE should procure EMUs designed for stopping services.
Apart from that does anyone else have any ideas for what services will work on the York to Manchester route once TRU is complete, when they will be implemented and what infrastructure works would be required to make the operation of these services possible?
