TfN seeks £49 billion
Transport for the North has asked the Government to fund 20-years of rail investment across the North of England between Liverpool and Hull.
TRANSPORT for the North has put forward rail investment proposals to the National Infrastructure Commission for a 20-year programme of development worth £49 billion. This includes the upgrades required for the Northern Powerhouse network at an estimated cost of £39 billion, with a further £10 billion available for smaller scale projects.
The scope of future Northern Powerhouse services has now been defined and is centred on six hubs at Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and its airport, and Liverpool. It integrates HS2 into the network with new and upgraded infrastructure.
The route map includes a new line between Liverpool and HS2 at Warrington, with chords that provide a north-facing junction for access to Manchester and a south-facing junction to reach Crewe and beyond. A further new alignment is proposed between Manchester and Leeds via Bradford.
The need for smaller scale developments is illustrated by the Manchester Castlefield Corridor project, where expansion to a fourtrack railway was planned as part of the Ordsall chord development opening in 2017 to link Victoria and Piccadilly stations. This mile-long section of line runs between Castlefield Junction and the through platforms at Piccadilly, and includes Oxford Road station. A Transport and Works Act submission was made to the Government in 2015 to provide powers for construction at a cost of up to £893 million with completion by 2020, but to date has not been authorised.
The view at the time was that without this enhancement no more than 12 trains per hour could run on the corridor, but despite this the May 2018 timetable provided 15 passenger services per hour with the added need to serve the Trafford Park Freightliner terminal. This facility operates 20 daily train arrivals and departures serving the deep sea ports at Felixstowe, Southampton and London Gateway.
The operating performance along this section is consistently poor, and an urgent appraisal of the options is being carried out. Solutions are limited if capacity investment does not take place, with the result that it is likely in the short term that the number of services using the link will be reduced.
ELECTRIFICATION IS KEY
The 2019/20 statistics for rail travel published by the ORR showed that Covid-19 travel restrictions in the final weeks of the financial year brought a reduction of 50 million passenger journeys, cancelling out growth earlier in the year.
Despite this, the Northern franchise – which was taken over by the DfT at the beginning of March – recorded a 6.6% increase in users in the year. It has emerged that the 2016 Northern franchise agreement does not contain a requirement for sufficient rolling stock to cater for growth at this level, and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority believes that when demand returns to normal up to 56 additional vehicles will be required.
‘Pacer’ units have been recalled for now – but with the 2040 carbon neutral objective for railway operation in mind, it is only an extension of electrified routes that can resolve the shortfall.
There are a number of options for infill electrification projects – in particular beyond the existing Merseyrail network, which has a number of boundary stations where it is necessary to change trains to continue a journey. Examples are at Ormskirk where the Liverpool to Preston route switches from electric to diesel, and similarly at Kirkby on the Liverpool to Wigan route.
Fortunately, the new fleet of Merseyrail Class 777 trains have been built with network expansion in mind as they have dual-voltage and battery capability, and an option for 60 further four-car units is in place to supplement the 52 units ordered for existing services.