Modern Railways – April 2019

45

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http://www.modern-railways.com April 2019 Modern Railways

need to be electrified, of course,

but wider benefits are to be had if

the wires were to start at Allerton,

enabling Liverpool to Manchester

passenger trains to be operated

with EMUs. The scheme would also

provide a second electrified route

between the two cities, giving

greater operating flexibility.

Removing freight trains from

the Castlefield corridor ought to

alleviate congestion and reduce

the amount of construction

needed in the city. It might possibly

even make additional tracks and

platforms at Piccadilly unnecessary.

PAUL THOMSON

Weaverham, Cheshire

Tony Miles comments: ‘This is not a

bad idea, although the chord would be

quite tight and would also involve a lot

of demolition of commercial buildings.

The loop at Glazebrook is still there I

believe, and wiring would be easy as the

junctions at each end are already done –

and it was seen as one of the easiest

routes to wire in the North West. The

biggest issue may be that Transport for

Greater Manchester listed the line as one

of its proposed tram-train routes and

whilst the vehicles could be designed

like those in Sheffield, I guess this might

remove a lot of the spare capacity.’

Every article on the capacity

issues of the Castlefield corridor

(Manchester Piccadilly – Oxford

Road – Deansgate) seems to have

a picture of an intermodal freight

train making its way down the

corridor between passenger trains in

order to get to or from Trafford Park

container terminal. There is an hourly

freight train path in each direction,

occupying a congested railway

desperate for more passenger train

capacity (and resilience), and the

750-metre trains also create conflicts

at the flat junctions at Wilmslow,

Heald Green, Slade Lane, Piccadilly

station throat and Castlefield.

Part of the solution proposed

by Network Rail is to create a

750-metre freight loop in each

direction between Piccadilly and

Oxford Road, because there is not

space to four-track the route all the

way to Deansgate. This idea would

allow the intermodal trains to cause

further congestion as they enter

and leave the loops at low speed.

It would surely be more sensible

to create a new freight route out

of Trafford Park towards the West

Coast main line near Warrington;

this would release passenger train

paths and improve service reliability

and resilience, and allow the Ordsall

chord from Deansgate to Manchester

Victoria to be used to its potential.

There is no direct route today

from Trafford Park to the West Coast

main line, and no obvious route

through Warrington for a new line

from the Manchester – Warrington –

Liverpool line to the West Coast

main line, but the formation of the

abandoned line from Glazebrook

heading north towards Wigan still

exists as a cycleway, and with only

agricultural land in the way of a chord

to the electrified Manchester –

Earlestown – Liverpool line. It needs

one new bridge over the M62, and

could be rebuilt as single track with

a crossing loop and with active

provision for full double tracking,

or even done right first time.

A few miles of electrification from

Trafford Park to Glazebrook and

along the reinstated line, and there

will be an electrified freight route

(even if most of the current freight

services are diesel-hauled) to both

north and southbound West Coast

main line tracks, and this route

would open new opportunities for

intermodal services to Scotland

from Trafford Park. The cycleway:

purchase a three-metre strip of same

agricultural land alongside the route.

This proposal would increase

network capacity and resilience, rather

than just moving the bottlenecks

around, and the necessary

infrastructure work is away from the

most congested and busy locations.

STUART BROADBENT

Preston

Tony Miles comments: ‘I’d never spotted

the route of the old line from west of

Glazebrook – you can see there was

a triangle from Google Earth! At first

sight this seems easier than knocking

down buildings in Warrington.’

MIDLANDS PROGRESS

During my time as Operating

Superintendent at Nottingham in

the late 1970s, the station building

on the down platform at Market

Harborough was built at an angle to

the track in anticipation of the track

realignment to eliminate the 50mph

speed restriction through the station.

It is therefore really good news

that much-needed infrastructure

improvements on the Midland

main line are finally being delivered

(p52, last month). Less welcome is

the Government’s stubborn refusal

to revisit the business case for

full electrification of the MML, as

confirmed in a recent Parliamentary

written answer from Baroness Sugg.

There has always been a good

business case for electrification of the

MML; it is a simple railway with good

service frequencies over its full length,

unlike routes such as Cardiff –

Swansea. In addition, it also offers

good infill opportunities; electrify

30 route miles from Sheffield to

Fitzwilliam (on the Doncaster to

Leeds line) and to Doncaster and you

can run electric trains from Sheffield

to Leeds and Doncaster and over

292 miles from Derby to Edinburgh

via the East Coast main line. 100mph

electric units would also improve

reliability and increase capacity on

the congested railway between

Doncaster and Leeds. Add on a

further 34 route miles from Dore to

Hazel Grove and you can run electric

trains from Doncaster, Sheffield and

Nottingham to Manchester and

Liverpool, again, high-performance

electric units would improve reliability

and make better use of scarce paths

on the south Trans-Pennine route.

There have been two major

changes since the Government’s

ill-considered decision to cancel

the electrification of the MML. It is

now clear that the cost of further

electrification would be significantly

less per mile than on the Great

Western. Secondly, whilst the

cost of procuring, operating and

maintaining bi-mode trains is already

substantially more than similar costs

for electric trains, the decision by the

Government to phase out diesel trains

by 2040 will mean that the cost of

bi-modes will need to be considered

over a life span around half that

of electrics, further strengthening

the case for electrification.

The Government’s claim that

bi-modes can be in operation

on the MML sooner than electric

trains does not stand up to serious

scrutiny. I was one of the team that

delivered electrification of 212 miles

of the West Coast main line from

Weaver Junction (north of Crewe)

to Glasgow in just three years –

around 70 miles a year over far more

challenging terrain than the MML.

It is just 55 miles from Kettering to

Nottingham and a further 47 miles

from Trent Junction to Sheffield

via Derby. Even if progress means

electrifying 70 miles a year is now

too challenging for today’s railway,

by continuing north from Kettering

when current work is completed

in August 2020, it should surely be

possible to have electric trains in

Nottingham in 2022 and in Derby

and Sheffield by the end of 2023.

A final thought; over the last

decade, average government funding

for railways in the East Midlands

has consistently been the lowest

in the UK. In 2016-17, the funding

for the East Midlands was just

£70 per head of population, less

than half that for the West Midlands

(£151) and less than one-third

of the national average (£249).

Electrification of the MML should be

prioritised over other electrification

schemes to not only provide major

benefits for passengers in the East

Midlands but to open the door for

similar benefits for passengers in

both South and West Yorkshire.

BOB POYNTER

Collingham, Notts

A useful update on the Midland

main line in your March issue, but

it didn’t answer a question I keep

asking myself. All electrification

is welcome, but why Corby?

Major towns and cities such as

Bristol, Derby, Huddersfield, Hull,

Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield

and Swansea have all seen their

electrification schemes cast into

various degrees of long grass, but

Corby’s seems to be ringfenced. It can

hardly be through existing weight of

users: a glance at Wikipedia suggests

that in 2017-18 it had just under

300,000 users, while – to take just

one example – the group of Cross

Gates, Garforth, East Garforth and

Micklefield, which would benefit from

a Neville Hill to Colton Junction fill-in

scheme, had a total of 1.6 million.

Apparently, the Corby branch isn’t

even technically convenient, as

the substation is to be on the (now

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