The six priorities

Hence, the six priorities. Two focus on gauging works to allow the passage of bigger trains both along the Transpennine Route and complementary projects around it, namely the Northallerton-Eaglescliffe section. Moreover, TfN is asking for the “approval and delivery of additional, complementary rail freight terminal capacity in the North West served by the Chat Moss rail corridor”, linking Manchester with Liverpool.

The fourth and fifth priorities also concern the Manchester area, including passing loops for long freight trains in Eccles and Patricroft. Additionally, TfN advised for funding the Manchester and North West Transformation Programme for further capacity developments. Finally, the sub-governmental body stressed the need for government support to improve the infrastructure around the TRU.

For the gauging works mentioned above, TfN calculated that they would cost somewhere between 55 and 60 million pounds (63 and 69 million euros). Funds for terminal capacity enhancement should come from the private sector but were not calculated, while the financial needs for the remaining priorities remains “unknown at this stage”, the appendix to the letter clarified.

Insufficient connectivity and unreliable infrastructure

Levelling Up is an initiative promoted by the UK government to redress the economic imbalance between the booming south and the underperforming north. Addressing one of the key challenges faced by the North of England, and answering the Levelling Up agenda, the TransPennine Route Upgrade program seeks to rectify decades of underinvestment in the region’s transport network. Insufficient connectivity and unreliable infrastructure have hindered economic progress, limiting growth opportunities, accessibility, and social mobility.

Several projects, significant in themselves, have already been achieved. Station upgrades, electrification improvements, track layout remodelling and signalling upgrades have already been signed off. There is however much more to be completed. Critics would argue that even in its present form, the project has been truncated. With the cancellation of a dedicated additional high speed route, sometimes dubbed “HS3”, the one-size-fits-all TransPennine Route will never have the capacity to cope with all the traffic everyone would like to throw at it.

Reliable, resilient, sustainable

“We still believe that the TRU should be wholly electrified and be fully gauge cleared to support the growth in freight movements from our Northern ports, so supporting the North to reach its true economical potential”, said Lord McLoughlin, Chair of Transport for the North, speaking after their meeting and referring back to the TfN’s own strategic rail report. “We are pleased with the programme’s progress which demonstrates how speaking with one voice on key transport investment decisions for the region is necessary if we are to drive inclusive and sustainable transformational economic growth and rebalance the UK economy. Our focus as a Board is on a rail service that is reliable, resilient, and environmentally sustainable and we will continue to bring forward credible and affordable long-term proposals for transforming the North’s transport network.”

The freight and logistics sector in the North plays a critical role in the UK economy. Around a third of goods entering the UK comes through Northern ports like Hull, Newcastle and Liverpool – all of them directly on the TransPennine Route. A quarter of all inland freight originates from the region. If it lives up to billing, the TRU program will deliver up to 15 additional freight train paths daily. If that’s enough to answer demand, then the revamped TransPennine Route will be rescoping the economic landscape of the North all by itself.

Current and future requirements need investment

The Freight Logistics Strategy report looks at the broad picture for the North. Rail freight capacity developments at ports on both sides of Great Britain play into the hands of the new report. According to TfN analysis, more than a third of goods enter Great Britain through Northern ports, such as Liverpool, Hull and Sunderland. A quarter of all British moved freight starts or ends its journey in the North. By 2050 those goods could be worth more than thirty billion pounds to the North’s economy and employ more than 500,000 people.

“It is the first pan-Northern freight and logistics strategy of this type and complements our Strategic Transport Plan in developing a multimodal freight strategy for the North of England”, says TfN. “To see growth in the sector that meets the current and future requirements of our region and the UK economy, investment is required.[These are] to address three main areas of constraint across the road, rail and inland waterway networks: network capacity and capability, terminal availability and decarbonisation.”

Reduce the carbon impacts of freight and logistics

“Our Freight and Logistics Strategy, which covers road, rail and waterway freight, reveals the data that drives the sector and identifies the opportunities for decarbonising the sector”, said Martin Tugwell, the chief executive at Transport for the North. “The drive to reduce the carbon impacts of freight and logistics runs through this strategy. We have a clear vision and want to see continued growth in the sector that will help unlock the economic potential of the North. Our approach puts the needs of the user at the heart of our work for only in this way will our solutions deliver real results for businesses and communities.”

Uncertainty over the future of rail investment is still an issue for the region. Despite repeated announcements from the government in London, the ‘stop-go-redefined’ nature headline projects, such as Northern Powerhouse Rail, leaves business decision makers seeking flexible, rather than fixed solutions to their forecasted logistics requirements. These are issues the report seeks to address, but the major stumbling block of funding control remains unresolved.

Deliver sufficient capacity for enhanced freight

While development of the rail network is welcomed in the report, the abandonment of the optimal ‘Northern Powerhouse Rail’ programme is not ignored. The much vaunted Transpennine Route Upgrade has been questioned over its ability to deliver sufficient capacity for enhanced freight operations, as well as an intensified passenger timetable, and other routes, particularly a connection between Manchester and Leeds (the Diggle Route) remain lacking in significant investment.

“Northern Powerhouse Rail and other initiatives supported by TfN seek for more of the rail network in the North to be electrified”, says the report. “Network Rail has issued an interim programme business case for its Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy. However, there is no certainty of funding for electrification of the wider network – and the routes used most by freight traffic (excepting sections of the Midland Main Line) tend to be lower priorities than routes used by frequent passenger services. Network capacity issues may also drive freight onto alternative routes to the West and East Coast main lines that currently have a still less pressing case for electrification investment.”

Network Rail speeding up the project

Network Rail is now finalising detailed designs that will improve sections of the railway between Bamford station and Jaggers Lane Bridge in Hathersage, and around Dore & Totley station, where a second platform will also be added. Work is expected to begin in 2022 and will be completed in 2023. Network Rail has already started work on the design stages of the programme. 

The infrastructure management agency recently began implementing its ‘project SPEED’ structural streamlining, intended specifically to make projects like this more efficient and faster to implement. That has met with approval from government sources. “I am delighted to confirm 137 million for this scheme to remove bottlenecks on the Hope Valley line, transforming journeys between Sheffield and Manchester, two dynamic Northern Powerhouse cities”, said rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris. “We are committed to levelling up infrastructure across the North, and these important upgrades will make a huge difference, providing the punctual, reliable services, as we build back better from COVID-19.”

Byword for delays

Capacity between Sheffield and Manchester has been an ongoing issue for decades. The controversial closure of alternative routes, as part of the rationalisation of the 1960s, limited rail’s ability to compete for freight traffic, at the very same time as a huge motorway project across the mountains that separate the two cities was underway. There has been significant lobby from the freight sector ever since, to improve the remaining routes, particularly the Hope Valley, which has become a by-word for the capacity issues that affect the North of England.

“This line has suffered for years with slower trains holding up faster ones, leading to cancellations, delays, and unreliable services”, said David Hoggarth, the strategic rail director at Transport for the North, the, the sub-national body charged with overall improvements to communications links between the communities of the region. “It currently has some of the slowest train speeds on the North’s rail network”, he observed. “It’s great news that investment will now go into this vital corridor, whilst longer-term upgrades as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail are finalised.”

Passing loops and collaboration

Initially, the investment will help remove some of the key rail bottlenecks on the line by providing two vital freight passing loops, and a second line through Dore and Totley station on the western edge of Sheffield. The intention is that the additional capacity will provide for improved passenger frequency, without compromising freight traffic, which will be more efficiently handled under the revised layout.

Network Rail say they are already engaged in signalling design work at the same time as the tendering process, and talking to both passenger train operators and rail freight companies about changes to the network that may be needed during construction. 

The three bodies – the Department for Transport, Transport for the North, and Network Rail – are collaborating as part of the wider Manchester Recovery Taskforce, which is looking at a range of options over the coming decade to improve performance in and around Manchester. These include the already implemented Ordsall Chord just west of Manchester Piccadilly station,  and the massive congestion issue of the Castlefield Corridor, which links that project with the Hope Valley line. 

It was responding to the proposals set out by Transport for the North’s (TfN), a 30-year rail and road upgrade scheme which ministers have hailed as ‘revolutionary’. It includes a blueprint for developing the rail network across the north of the UK for freight and passengers.

The plan says: “Rail freight analysis shows strong growth in north-south routes as well as east-west routes. These routes are popular with passengers and freight because they are direct and they provide access to key ports and markets. These routes are already short of capacity, with conflicts between passenger and freight movements.”

Corridors

TfN estimates the the plans will cost around two or three billion Pounds per year to implement, but could in the long term boost the economy by 100 million Pounds and create 850,000 new jobs by 2050. It has identified seven strategic development corridors across the north where it will focus on improving transport infrastructure. These corridors link important ‘prime capability’ assets and important economic centres that are currently in need of improved connectivity. These include the freight & logistics sector serving businesses via ports and inland distribution centres, such as the new iPort intermodal terminal in Doncaster (pictured).

TfN adds that it has developed a ‘high-level intermodal freight tool’ which models the benefits of modal shift between road and rail. “This a ground-breaking tool and will change the way the north think as TfN builds future business cases, including the role of the freight network in supporting the delivery and operation of major strategic developments across the North,” says the plan.

Modal shift

Maggie Simpson, Executive Director of the RFG, said: “Transport for the North have recognised that businesses in the north of England want to use more rail for transporting their goods, between ports and consumers and into rail linked warehouses, quarries and production facilities. These plans for upgrading the railways and for large scale modal shift to rail are therefore good news for rail freight operators and customers.

“In particular, the plan confirms support for the upgrade of the north Transpennine route, where development work is currently underway. We have been working to ensure that capacity and gauge for freight is fully incorporated as a core part of the work, and this must now be urgently confirmed as this vital project moves forward.”

Vision

John Cridland, Chairman of TfN, said: “Transport for the North has for the first time outlined its emerging vision for Northern Powerhouse Rail, a rapid, reliable and resilient rail network between the North’s six biggest cities and other economic centres. This is accompanied by an updated Rail Strategy for investment in the North’s existing lines, stations, services and franchise operations, reflecting the planned integration of Rail North into Transport for the North in April this year.”

Stephen Joseph, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, described the plan’s emphasis on rail was ‘long overdue’ given the decades of underinvestment in rail in the north of England. “We now need to see the inter-urban investment in the plan matched by investment in local transport across the region, both in rural as well as urban areas, so that no community is left behind,” he added.