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Philip Haigh is quite right to highlight the need for improved connections between Derby and Manchester ( RAIL 834), but his aspiration for a direct service via Dore South Curve is likely to be thwarted by chronic lack of capacity in the Hope Valley.
With just the present service of two fast trains per hour, one stopping service every two hours and various freight trains serving quarries and industry in and around the Peak District, the Hope Valley Line is already almost at capacity.
In 2016, incoming franchisee Arriva Rail North committed to much-needed extra trains to fill the two-hour gaps in the weekday all-stations stopping service, but even this is proving problematic and likely to involve a degree of skip-stopping from May 2018.
Network Rail’s Hope Valley Capacity Improvement Scheme is intended to facilitate the operation of three fast and one stopping trains per hour. The work involves reinstatement of double-track to the bottleneck through Dore & Totley station and construction of an eastbound passing loop between Bamford and Hathersage stations. A public inquiry into the scheme was held in May 2016 and the inspector’s report delivered to the Department for Transport in November 2016.
Any plans to improve East Midlands-North West services via the Hope Valley are entirely dependent on completion of this improvement scheme, so it is particularly surprising that despite having had the report for nearly ten months, the DfT has failed to reach a decision prior to publication of the East Midlands franchise consultation.
Such prevarication serves only to hamper the aspirations of East Midlands’ stakeholders and to create uncertainty over future service capabilities for would-be franchisees. The DfT’s apparent reluctance to approve the scheme is all the more remarkable, given the potential to increase fast train capacity by 50%, from a comparatively modest financial investment.
It should also be remembered that the primary objective of the scheme is to increase capacity between Manchester and Sheffield - the two worstconnected cities of their size and proximity in Europe, both by rail and road.
With just two trains per hour at present, overcrowding is commonplace, even on off-peak services. If a third fast train path were to be created, potentially for a through East Midlands-North West service, maximum capacity benefits would be achieved by routeing services via Sheffield rather than via Dore South Curve.
The time penalty of 15-20 minutes for through East Midlands-North West journeys is unfortunate, but the lesser of two evils when compared with the loss of capacity caused by avoiding Sheffield.
Andrew Dyson, Hope Valley Railway Users Group