A reversal of fortune

Regarding the article on Woodhead ( RAIL 866), it is difficult to find anybody in Sheffield who agrees that closure of Sheffield (Victoria) and the electrified Woodhead rail route was the correct decision.

Transport for the North is of the opinion that as far as improvements are concerned, any new ‘Northern Powerhouse rail’ high-speed line connecting with HS2 will not benefit south Yorkshire, and must be routed from Manchester to Leeds on the alignment via Bradford of the M62. This is in addition to improvement and electrification of the existing rail route via Diggle, and investigating proposals that the Calder Valley route be electrified.

Dore and Totley/Hope Valley/ Hazel Grove/Stockport is perceived by TfN as the only trans-Pennine rail route solution for south Yorkshire, with the existing Sheffield-Manchester local service via New Mills and Marple diverted via Stockport. This, at a time when the south Manchester rail network is under scrutiny.

It is suggested that Woodhead is provided with a new road tunnel. In addition, reopening the rail tunnel would be very challenging and expensive, due to significant engineering issues and the fact that no connection currently exists between the route and Sheffield station.

From 1969 to 1983, Sheffield Midland-Penistone-Huddersfield

services, before diversion via Barnsley, reversed to each direction at a crossover west of Woodburn junction (later known at Nunnery Branch junction). In addition, Sheffield- Manchester Piccadilly services on Sundays performed a similar operation, due to engineering work in Hope Valley.

Cologne-Munich ICE high-speed services reverse at Frankfurt in four minutes. Japanese Shinkansen ‘Bullet’ Tokyo-Akita trains reverse at Omagari every hour, opposite each other, in four minutes. Long-distance East Midland Trains Liverpool-Norwich trains reverse regularly, each hour, at both Sheffield and Ely.

I fail to see why a fast second service via a combined rail/rail-road Woodhead Tunnel from Sheffield Midland to Manchester Piccadilly, calling at Penistone and Guide Bridge and vice-versa, cannot be introduced and be reversed at a crossover in the Nunnery area. This is an operation similar to that stopped in 1983.

The question of freight involvement and the possibilities of a station at Nunnery to benefit local services west to Stockbridge and east to Killamarsh should not be overlooked. David Wrottesley, Sheffield