From Nina Smith

Friday, 14 February 2014

Can I update people re the possible electrification of the Calder Valley railway lines. I attended a presentation in York yesterday by Rob Warnes, Northern Rail's Planning and Programmes Director. He confirmed that as far as Northern Rail is concerned, the electrification of our line is a priority and that is the message they are giving to the Department for Transport (DfT). The position regarding the Northern Electrification Task Force set up by DfT is that it was announced before its remit has been agreed; indeed, it is still being written. According to Warnes, the original list of lines to be considered was not comprehensive and the task force will consider the case for electrifying the Calder Valley lines as well as those announced in the press release. The task force is due to report in 2015. In my personal opinion, it is not whether our line is electrified but when. It is extremely unlikely that work could commence before 2018, but I would be surprised if our route has not been electrified by the early 2020s. There are several reasons why I think this will be the case:

• Our route is the only realistic diversionary route for Trans Pennine trains when the Huddersfield route is closed for whatever reason, and that route will be electrified by 2018.
• The Government is keen that Bradford has faster connectivity to Manchester, and that means electric trains and line speed improvements.
• Electrification from Manchester to Rochdale will be necessary to allow the new local electric services being developed in the North West to continue through to a new bay platform due to be built at Rochdale, thus increasing capacity at Victoria by reducing the number of trains terminating there.
• From 2018, it is planned that some Calder Valley line trains will continue to Manchester Airport.
• Passenger numbers starting or finishing journeys at the intermediate stations on our line (i.e. all except Leeds and Manchester) increased by 80% between 2006/7 and 2011/12.

Nina Smith, UCVR Sustainable Transport Group* and Railfuture*
*both groups always seek new members; if interested, please email me on nhrawsons@googlemail.com