Castlefield underground

It has been a feature of franchising for some years that no one could win a franchise unless it was tendered on the basis that you would run an impossible number of trains, certainly through places such as Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.

Anyone who even suggested that the specifications laid down by the Department for Transport were impracticable was promptly disqualified. Perhaps the effect of Coronavirus will be to reduce the requirement for so many trains.

If we go back to the requirement for as many trains as possible, could I suggest a way of dealing with the problem of the Castlefield Corridor?

Twenty or 30 years ago, it would have been quite possible to four-track this stretch by putting additional tracks on the southerly side of the existing tracks. However, this land has subsequently been built over.

So, rather than building adjacent to the existing tracks, a new route should be taken underground from the proposed HS2/3 terminus in the direction of Liverpool with an underground station at either Victoria or Salford (the latter desperately needs rebuilding).

When I was young, Cheshire Lines trains ran from Manchester Central to Liverpool Central with two stops in 45 minutes. One train (the Isle of Man boat service) made the journey in 38 minutes non-stop, and there were trains from Manchester Exchange to Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria to Liverpool Exchange in similar times.

If the new high-speed route is to go wandering around by Manchester Airport, coming into Manchester Piccadilly from the southeasterly side and then changing direction, I do not see how there is going to be an improvement as and when HS3 is built.

A line under Manchester, coming to the surface somewhere towards Eccles, would potentially offer a time to Liverpool of 25 to 30 minutes.

Furthermore, with suitable junctions where the route meets HS2 it would offer the facility for fast and reasonably congestionfree travel to not only Liverpool, but also Southport, Preston, Blackpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh and even places such as Chester.

These could be regarded as being the fast lines and the existing route would be the slow lines. Four tracks, offering the possibility for overtaking where there are delays or engineering work - hey presto!

R M Napier, Cheshire