It’s difficult to identify quite what is meant by the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
First there was the Manchester Hub, which then became the Northern Hub, which was “approved in full” several years ago. This was a bit misleading, as it originally included reopening both the disused Standedge tunnels to give four tracks between Marsden and Diggle, but this was then replaced by electrification, so what was approved “in full” was less than what was originally proposed.
All of which goes to show that government announcements often aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Possibly not a huge surprise there.
The Northern Hub was supposed to be completed by 2018, but the only part of it to have been completed is the Ordsall Curve in Manchester. It was the reorganisation of train services to utilise the Ordsall curve which resulted in the May 2018 timetable meltdown which affected Slaithwaite, Marsden, Greenfield and Mossley worse than anywhere else.
Some of the definite commitments in the Northern Hub have been quietly abandoned or deferred indefinitely. In particular, electrification from Manchester to Stalybridge, and on to Huddersfield, Leeds and York/Selby has not been started and it’s unclear when or indeed whether most of it will happen.
The current proposal, we think, is the Transpennine Route Upgrade. There’s very little that’s known with certainty about TRU. The budget, allegedly, is £2.9 billion (which, incidentally, is less than the cost overrun on London Crossrail). Anyone we talk to in the railway industry either denies knowledge of what it will involve, or says they are sworn to secrecy (it’s not stated who is swearing them to secrecy), or both.
There are some guesses or rumours as to what it will involve, but nothing official. So here’s what we think we know.
It will involve years of disruption affecting communities including Slaithwaite & Marsden (leaked letter from Rob McIntosh of Network Rail, 10th September 2018)
It will be wonderful in a non-specific way (article in YP by the same Rob McIntosh, 14th December 2018)
It’s going to be announced in November 2018 (it wasn’t)
It’s going to be announced in December 2018 (it wasn’t)
It’s going to be announced in January 2019 (it wasn’t)
Work will start in Spring 2019 (Andrew Jones MP, Rail Minister, 10/01/2019) (it didn’t)
It probably doesn’t involve electrification between Huddersfield and Stalybridge, even though this is the hilly part of the route where electrification would bring the most benefits.
It allegedly involves four tracks from Huddersfield to Ravensthorpe (c0nfirmed on 18/08/2019).
There was apparently a consultation with passengers in July and August, carried out by Transport Focus on behalf of Network Rail. The consultation consisted of focus groups at Huddersfield, Leeds and Manchester, conveniently excluding passengers at the stations where the most disruption is likely to be matched with the least benefit. The leaked letter of 10/09/2018 is also being cited as part of the public consultation. [source: Network Rail presentation to Transport for the North Board, 12/09/2019]
Stalybridge station will be rebuilt (again) to give four through platforms. Possibly.
As to whether it will deliver full disabled access at all stations, it seems that the Department for Transport have decided that full disabled access is an optional extra which won’t be provided. We kept asking about this, and now we know why no-one was prepared to answer. More on this in a separate posting.
There might be an announcement in the Autumn. Or maybe there won’t.