Which lines are most suitable for conversion to light rail lines?

[willgreen]

Which National Rail lines are best suited to conversion to metro, tram or tram-train operation?
I'll kick things off: the Leeds-Bradford line via New Pudsey. There's only a couple of through trains per hour which could probably be better routed via Dewsbury, and it passes through a densely populated area, connecting West Yorkshire's two biggest cities.

 

[Halish Railway]

I think that TramTrain is ideal for Leeds, for example Horsforth to Leeds via Wellington Street.

Another light Rail scheme could be to extend the Supertram from Middlewood to Stocksbridge via the Woodhead route.

 

[computerSaysNo]

The Edinburgh Suburban line could be electrified as part of the tram line. The electrification would still need to comply with the Network Rail standards though, as heavy rail still needs to use the line.

 

[StephenHunter]

Romford to Upminster; while there is a decent amount of traffic, it's never enough to more than half-fill a four-car unit. You could add a couple of stops along the way as well.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Which National Rail lines are best suited to conversion to metro, tram or tram-train operation?
I'll kick things off: the Leeds-Bradford line via New Pudsey. There's only a couple of through trains per hour which could probably be better routed via Dewsbury, and it passes through a densely populated area, connecting West Yorkshire's two biggest cities.

Interesting, as I've been along that line countless times recently thanks to rovers and 10p tickets. Would you put an elongated version of the Sheffield to Rotherham tram-train on it?

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

What about the Slough to Windsor & Eton Central line? Only a 6-minute trip.

 

[alangla]

The Maryhill line might work & would cut out 2 awkward crossing moves on the E&G - off the rail line around Ashfield station, through Sighthill serving the bit that’s being rebuilt then down Baird Street to Buchanan Bus Station & further into town. Would also eliminate the last diesel local service out of Queen Street and hopefully provide a quicker journey than the buses to Maryhill, Summerston etc. A decision would need to be made on whether to continue regular heavy rail services over the route or divert the West Highland services via low level. Any freight can go via the Argyle line and does so fairly regularly.

 

[matt_world2004]

West Ealing Branch line

 

[Glenn1969]

If you convert the Leeds- Bradford line to light rail how do you serve Halifax? Halifax station pre Covid was approaching 2m passengers a year and is worthy of a 4tph Leeds service but the single line at Bradley Jct would be a constraint if all these trains went via Brighouse

 

[Andyh82]

If you convert the Leeds- Bradford line to light rail how do you serve Halifax? Halifax station pre Covid was approaching 2m passengers a year and is worthy of a 4tph Leeds service but the single line at Bradley Jct would be a constraint if all these trains went via Brighouse

I doubt you can run another 4 trains an hour through Dewsbury either!

 

[Bevan Price]

Which National Rail lines are best suited to conversion to metro, tram or tram-train operation?
I'll kick things off: the Leeds-Bradford line via New Pudsey. There's only a couple of through trains per hour which could probably be better routed via Dewsbury, and it passes through a densely populated area, connecting West Yorkshire's two biggest cities.

I would disagree. There is quite a lot of through traffic between Leeds & Halifax, and enforcing a change at Bradford would not be popular. Reusing / part clearing old railway alignments would be a better idea, maybe giving places like Wetherby a Metro service from Leeds.
And in the Manchester area, maybe partly use old railway alignments near Oldham Werneth to create a Metrolink service to Chadderton & Middleton.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Which National Rail lines are best suited to conversion to metro, tram or tram-train operation?
I'll kick things off: the Leeds-Bradford line via New Pudsey. There's only a couple of through trains per hour which could probably be better routed via Dewsbury, and it passes through a densely populated area, connecting West Yorkshire's two biggest cities.

It might be a good idea to convert that to tram train with 25kv electrification on the rail parts and done to heavy rail standards to ensure that heavy rail stock can serve that route if need be. You may want to keep 1tph from Halifax to Leeds or Hull via Bradford,just to keep the direct train from Halifax to Pudsey and Leeds.

 

[willgreen]

For those asking, I'd convert the line to full tram or metro operation; tram-train, in this case, wouldn't be a great use of money.
I wouldn't suggest sending 4tph via Dewsbury, either - 2tph from Halifax to Leeds could be rerouted that way instead (I do think Halifax needs more frequent services to Leeds, but these would arguably be better provided by a proper metro service).
This article explains my thoughts properly: https://www.citymetric.com/transpor...-fixing-west-yorkshire-transport-network-3461

 

[AlastairFraser]

I think that TramTrain is ideal for Leeds, for example Horsforth to Leeds via Wellington Street.

Another light Rail scheme could be to extend the Supertram from Middlewood to Stocksbridge via the Woodhead route.

I think the Stocksbridge to Sheffield section of the Woodhead route would be more sensibly done as an extension of the Sheffield to Rotherham Tram Train from Nunnery Square to Stocksbridge with 25kv overhead to retain main line capabilities for the Stocksbridge branch.

 

[AlastairFraser]

The Edinburgh Suburban line could be electrified as part of the tram line. The electrification would still need to comply with the Network Rail standards though, as heavy rail still needs to use the line.

That seems more sensibly done as part of an Edinburgh light metro scheme with 15tph round the loop and through Haymarket & Waverley. The only downside to that is,due to the traffic on the lines through Central Edinburgh, the metro would probably have to have a separate tunnel there.

 

[Glenn1969]

1tph is not enough for Halifax- Leeds traffic plus that route serves other places along the Calder Valley and Rochdale and there is no room for extra services via Dewsbury

I would say Wakefield to Knottingley and Leeds to Knottingley via Glasshoughton could be candidates for a tram train service

 

[AM9]

How about Maidenhead to Bourne End and then to Marlow. It would at last solve the problem of Bourne End's short platform and allow the removal of another diesel island from the GWML.

 

[willgreen]

1tph is not enough for Halifax- Leeds traffic plus that route serves other places along the Calder Valley and Rochdale and there is no room for extra services via Dewsbury

I would say Wakefield to Knottingley and Leeds to Knottingley via Glasshoughton could be candidates for a tram train service

There is room for extra Dewsbury services. At the moment it's got 4tph I believe; compare that to the Micklefield-Leeds railway, which is another two track railway which manages over 10tph.
I know there's signalling and speed restriction constraints but there's definitely potential for more than 4tph.

 

[AlastairFraser]

What about the Slough to Windsor & Eton Central line? Only a 6-minute trip.

This would be better as the Windsor Link Railway connecting the Staines to Windsor and Eton Riverside with the Slough to Windsor line. My preference in that situation would be to convert the tunnel and the Slough to Windsor to third rail with a station at Chalvey & services run through from Staines and eventually Waterloo,but the ORR wouldn't allow that, so the last stretches could be done on battery to solve that issues.

 

[AlastairFraser]

How about Maidenhead to Bourne End and then to Marlow. It would at last solve the problem of Bourne End's short platform and allow the removal of another diesel island from the GWML.

Bourne End to Marlow could be a tram as it is very short and often operated by a shuttle anyway, but Maidenhead to Bourne End should be extended over the old line(where the alignment is mostly intact) to High Wycombe via Loudwater and Wooburn Green. This would reinstate railway services to Loudwater and Wooburn Green,which are nowadays quite built up areas, Bucks CC have funded a feasibility study into its reinstatement I think and it would be easy to terminate it in the bay in High Wycombe. It could be electrified at 25kv and create a link between the Wycombe urban area/Chiltern Main Line and the Thames Valley and Crossrail at Maidenhead and take tons of traffic off the A404 where there is only a very slow bus from Reading and most of the Thames Valley onwards to High Wycombe.

 

[PTR 444]

Island Line?
As an isolated part of the national rail network, conversion to light rail would allow it to be extended at both ends to Shanklin town centre and underneath the Solent to connect with services at Portsmouth & Southsea.

If money was no object, i’d expand it into a fully fledged Solent metro system, with branches to Gosport/Fareham and Cosham/Waterlooville.

 

[Penmorfa]

Which National Rail lines are best suited to conversion to metro, tram or tram-train operation?
I'll kick things off: the Leeds-Bradford line via New Pudsey. There's only a couple of through trains per hour which could probably be better routed via Dewsbury, and it passes through a densely populated area, connecting West Yorkshire's two biggest cities.

Only if a heavy rail connection is also made from Forster Square to Interchange for diverted serviices. Otherwise it makes no sense at all.

 

[willgreen]

Only if a heavy rail connection is also made from Forster Square to Interchange for diverted serviices. Otherwise it makes no sense at all.

Not really - the only place that loses out is Halifax, and services could be diverted via Dewsbury instead.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Only if a heavy rail connection is also made from Forster Square to Interchange for diverted serviices. Otherwise it makes no sense at all.

Bradford Crossrail makes complete sense anyway, should have been done years ago. That way, services through from Halifax could go straight through to Leeds and they wouldn't have to waste time reversing at Bradford Interchange. They could just extend the Leeds to Bradford stoppers,so there wouldn't be any additional stoppers on the line and electrification could be extended the whole way to Preston to create a 2nd Yorkshire to WCML electrified route after the Transpennine route upgrade is finished

 

[37424]

Not really - the only place that loses out is Halifax, and services could be diverted via Dewsbury instead.

Complete nonsense significant traffic between Leeds and Halifax 4 trains an hour plus 3 on the Calder valley, added to which there are capacity constraints on the Dewsbury route.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Island Line?
As an isolated part of the national rail network, conversion to light rail would allow it to be extended at both ends to Shanklin town centre and underneath the Solent to connect with services at Portsmouth & Southsea.

If money was no object, i’d expand it into a fully fledged Solent metro system, with branches to Gosport/Fareham and Cosham/Waterlooville.

Resurrect the South Hants Rapid Transit! Seriously, a rail connection to the mainland would be a great idea with the amount of commuters travelling to Portsmouth and Soton across the Solent every day. But you might also want to run tram train services over the IoW Steam Railway to Newport and Ventnor at the other end of the current Island Line.

 

[willgreen]

Complete nonsense significant traffic between Leeds and Halifax 4 trains an hour plus 3 on the Calder valley, added to which there are capacity constraints on the Dewsbury route.

There's 4tph on the New Pudsey corridor. With capacity improvements through Dewsbury you could easily get 3tph extra through. Bradford Interchange isn't a through station anyway and there's significant time loss due to reversals. I don't think this is a perfect solution but I do think it's the best option for West Yorkshire as a whole.

 

[daodao]

Some suggestions:

1. Blackpool to Lytham, and possibly to Kirkham & Wesham. Fleetwood to Poulton (line currently disused).
2. Manchester Piccadilly to Marple Rose Hill via Reddish, and to Glossop/Hadfield, with a street tram line from Ashburys to the eastern portal of the underground Piccadilly tram stop.
3. Wimbledon to Sutton.
4. Extend Croydon Tramlink from Beckenham Junction to Bromley North on street, and then via the branch line to Grove Park.
5. South Shields to Sunderland (not currently a passenger line).
6. Birmingham Snow Hill to Shirley, with the rural line beyond to Stratford closed and Stratford trains diverted via Solihull.
7. St Albans City to Rickmansworth: On street to St Albans Abbey, then via ex-LNW branch to Watford Junction, then on street via Watford town centre to join either disused Croxley Green branch to link up with Metropolitan branch at Croxley Green, and then to Rickmansworth, or to run or disused alignment or Rickmansworth branch directly to Rickmansworth and on street to Metropolitan line station there. It could be extended to Hatfield, at least partly on the old alignment of the former St Albans to Hatfield branch.
8. Dyce Airport to Dyce Station, thence to Aberdeen and along the former Ballater branch to Peterculter (i.e. resurrection of the former GNSR Aberdeen suburban routes).
9. Coryton to Cardiff Queen Street.
10. Belfast to Dundonald and Newtownards (ex BCDR) - not strictly on topic.

I would prioritise items 1 and 2 on this list.

 

[NoMorePacers]

There is room for extra Dewsbury services. At the moment it's got 4tph I believe; compare that to the Micklefield-Leeds railway, which is another two track railway which manages over 10tph.
I know there's signalling and speed restriction constraints but there's definitely potential for more than 4tph.

The line through Dewsbury has something more like 7tph in each direction running through it. I'm no expert but I doubt you'd be able to fit the extra 4tph that does Halifax-Leeds through the Dewsbury line without major works (or a new line entirely for the expresses).

 

[willgreen]

The line through Dewsbury has something more like 7tph in each direction running through it. I'm no expert but I doubt you'd be able to fit the extra 4tph that does Halifax-Leeds through the Dewsbury line without major works (or a new line entirely for the expresses).

Didn't realise it was 7tph, in which case you wouldn't get 4tph through. You could probably do 2tph at a push (the operation is a bit more complex on that section with the mix of stoppers and destinations anyway).
I still think that a metro service between Bradford and Leeds would outweigh the loss of 2tph Halifax-Leeds, but then again I'm not a resident of Halifax.