Work to provide faster and more reliable rail journeys for passengers on the Hope Valley railway line between Manchester and Sheffield has moved forward with the first 340 metres of track for a new ‘passing loop’ being laid at Bamford.
The work forms part of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade to remove several bottlenecks and upgrade stations along the line. Installation of the new track required closure of the line while engineers worked around the clock with machinery that included heavy lift excavators, a dozer, and a tamper.
Since the start of the year, work has taken place at Dore & Totley to extend a bridge to accommodate a second track, over 700 metres of new track has been installed, and a new platform and accessible footbridge have been installed at Dore & Totley station.
The main improvements included in the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade are:
- a new platform and accessible footbridge with lifts at Dore & Totley station;
- a 1km-long railway loop between Bamford and Hathersage;
- replacing the existing foot crossing at Hathersage West with a new footbridge to improve safety;
- improvements to the signalling to improve its reliability;
- extending station platforms to accommodate longer trains with more carriages.
Rail Minister, Huw Merriman said: “These vital improvements will transform journeys on the historic Hope Valley line, making services faster and more reliable for passengers in the North.
“Backed by £137 million Government funding, the upgrades will boost connections between two thriving Northern cities while ensuring our stations are inclusive and accessible for all.”
Graeme Whitehead, Senior Sponsor for Network Rail said: “Installing the first pieces of track for this important passing loop is a major milestone for the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade.
“The upgrade of this popular route will help to alleviate historic bottlenecks, bringing faster and more reliable travel to local passengers and long-distance travellers.”
Chris Nutton, Major Projects Director for TransPennine Express said: “The work at Bamford was a key step in the Hope Valley Route Upgrade.
“I would like to thank customers for their cooperation whilst the important work took place.”
Responses
The restoration of the double track and the second platform at Dore & Totley is most welcome. It’s just a pity that these items were already there in the 1960s but were removed in the “rationalisation” of the railways following the Beeching report. And this downgrading of the Hope Valley route coincided with the complete closure of the other Sheffield-Manchester route via Woodhead. So the vital Sheffield-Manchester rail link was reduced to one route with a lot of single track. It is probably now costing much more to restore this route than was ever saved by its rationalisation.