TransPennine

NR submits £1.5bn application to electrify tracks and remodel Huddersfield station as part of route upgrade.

DEPARTMENT for Transport officials are considering Network Rail’s

£1.5 billion application to double the tracks between Dewsbury and Huddersfield, electrify them, build a flying junction at Thornhill, and remodel the Grade 1-listed station at Huddersfield.

NR submitted its Transport and Works Act Order application on March 31, with TransPennine

Route Upgrade Director Neil Holm saying: “If approved, the project will bring a more reliable railway with more trains, more seats, faster journeys and more choice for passengers.” NR expects approval from ministers early in 2023 and plans to start work that year.

NR is upgrading the transPennine route between York and Manchester in a series of projects (see panel).

It describes the work between Dewsbury and Huddersfield as the most important of its plans to remove capacity constraints.

This section is where the Calder Valley route between Wakefield and Brighouse crosses the LeedsHudderfield-Manchester line. It was once a four-track corridor, but British Rail cut capacity back to three tracks.

The work should entail a pair of 110mph fast lines built from a new junction at Thornhill East, running westwards while bypassing Heaton Lodge Junction on a new alignment before crossing Huddersfield Viaduct into the town’s station.

At the same time, NR will remodel two tracks to form the 75mph slow lines, with a flying junction at Thornhill where the lines from Wakefield Kirkgate and Leeds meet.

These slow lines will serve intermediate stations at

Ravensthorpe (with the station shifted west), Mirfield and Deighton. They will also serve Heaton Lodge Junction, where lines diverge towards Halifax and Hebden Bridge and Bradley Junction, which serves the same destinations from the opposite direction.

All four lines will cross Huddersfield Viaduct before reaching the remodelled station, which will have four through platforms rather than today’s three and one rather than two bay platforms facing Leeds (see

News Analysis, pages 30-31). The bay serving Sheffield is largely unaffected by NR’s plans.

NR must contend not only with Huddersfield station’s listed status, but also with several listed bridges and viaducts on the eight-mile section. The town’s approach viaduct is listed at Grade 2, and NR plans alterations at the station end to accommodate longer platforms and elsewhere to strengthen it to carry four tracks. It plans to fit electrification masts to the outside wall of this viaduct.

Other work involves demolishing bridges listed as recently as 2018, just before NR started formal

consultation on its plans. This is because they are too low to accommodate electrification wires.

NR found a similar situation with other bridges, so plans to replace them - including that carrying the A62. Initial plans had Bridge MVL3/105 slated for demolition, but NR now plans to keep it and use reduced electrical clearances for its overhead line equipment (OLE).

It plans to feed the route’s electrification from a new static frequency converter it will install near Ravensthorpe, to tie in with nearby high-voltage power lines. OLE will run from just west of Gledholt Tunnels at Huddersfield to around 400 metres south-west of Dewsbury station. NR plans to lower the track in the tunnels to provide sufficient electrical clearances.

Major work will take place at the eastern end of the project, as NR converts Thornhill LNW Junction into a flying junction.

The new fast lines will pass over the lines towards Wakefield Kirkgate using the new Baker Intersection Bridge and Baker Viaduct. The latter will carry all four lines over the River Calder and adjacent canal. NR explains in its application that a flyover will be cheaper and quicker to build than a dive-under.

It will also build a new Ravensthorpe station 200 metres west of today’s platforms. Sitting west of the junction, it will allow trains from both Leeds and Wakefield directions to call (today’s station sits only on the Leeds lines).

The new station and the two other intermediate stations at Mirfield and Deighton will receive 150-metre platforms with passive provision for extension to 200 metres.

Mirfield’s third platform, which today serves the Up Loop Line, will close. The station will have two platforms as an island serving only the slow lines. Passengers will reach the island platform from the eastern side of Station Road via a footbridge and lifts.

At Deighton, NR will build two platforms and use concrete and soil-nailed retaining walls to allow it to fit two slow lines serving the station and the two fast lines that bypass it. A temporary platform at Hillhouse will serve Huddersfield when the main station is closed for work.

Between Dewsbury and Thornhill, NR plans to remove a reverse curve by realigning the railway slightly south of its current track, which will make four bridges redundant (MDL 1/8 over the River Calder, MDL 1/7 over the old Ravensthorpe branch, MDL 1/6 over the Calder and Hebble Canal, and MDL 1/5).

NETWORK RAIL. Network Rail plans to build a flying junction at Thornhill, where lines from Leeds and Wakefield converge to head towards Heaton Lodge Junction. The existing railway runs just to the left of the new alignment, which is to be carried on Baker Viaduct.

PHILIP HAIGH. Network Rail plans to unblock a bottleneck between Dewsbury and Huddersfield by building a flyover at Thornhill and creating a four-track railway. The fast lines run unhindered, while the slow lines serve Ravensthorpe, Mirfield and Deighton and have junctions with lines to Wakefield, Halifax and Hebden Bridge. The platform at Hillhouse will be temporary to serve Huddersfield during NR’s works.

NETWORK RAIL. At Heaton Lodge, NR plans to lay two tracks that bypass the junction itself and will be used by express services.

NETWORK RAIL. This artist’s impression shows Network Rail’s plan for Ravensthorpe station in its new position, to allow services from Leeds and Wakefield to call.