Plans for rail upgrade given Government approval
July 1, 2022
The plans should allow the faster operation of TransPennine Express services between York, Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Manchester with dedicated fast lines keeping express trains apart from stopping trains and freight services.
The scheme will return the railway to having the four tracks it had during the Victorian era, this time allowing for fast trains to be well separated from the slower trains. The plan also aims to alleviate problems and delays where the main Trans-Pennine line merges and diverges from the route along the Calder Valley.
The plans involve replacement of several bridges and major alterations to stations at Huddersfield, Deighton,
Ravensthorpe station will be moved, allowing stops for Wakefield-bound as well as Leeds-bound trains. A flyover there will seperate the fast lines between Leeds and Manchester from the junction, improving the current situation of two twin-track routes merging into a section with three tracks between Ravensthorpe and Mirfield.
Huddersfield station will gain an additional platform for through trains and one long northbound bay platform at the far side of the station in place of the two shorter ones on the island platform, where a new footbridge is planned.
Find out more about the plans at this
