Logjam of trains ‘could hold back upgrade’

A LOGJAM of trains north of York has been singled out as a major hurdle ahead of a £13.5m upgrade aimed at bringing in a twicehourly service between the city and Knaresborough.

Jointly funded by North Yorkshire County Council and Local Enterprise Partnership, the scheme to upgrade service between Knaresborough and York includes minor infrastructure improvements on the Harrogate line that will allow train operator Northern to fulfil its franchise commitment to double the services to two trains per hour in each direction.

However a report to North Yorkshire’s transport scrutiny committee says while work is running to programme to develop and deliver the multi-million pound scheme, “there remains one significant risk to its delivery, namely track capacity on the East Coast Mainline immediately north of York”.

The report adds: “There is a significant capacity constraint on this section of line where freight traffic, East Coast Mainline, Transpennine, Cross Country and the Harrogate Line services all interact.”

Operator Network Rail is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of the timetable on the whole East Coast Mainline, with a report on the issues expected in December.

Preliminary design of the infrastructure and timetable assessments are expected to be completed in December, followed by detailed design and delivery of the infrastructure, starting in January.

Harrogate’s cabinet member for planning, Councillor Rebecca Burnett, said earlier this year that the potential construction of a new 3,000-home village near Green Hammerton as dictated in the draft local plan would “help with the commercial justification for improvements” to the rail line.