Wednesday 5 Mar 2025
Customers asked to check before they travel ahead of TRU upgrades
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
TRU engineers will be delivering upgrades between Leeds and Church Fenton on the weekends of 8-9 March, 15-16 March and 22-23 March, meaning services will be impacted on this line.
The work forms part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, a multi-billion-pound railway programme that will transform journeys across the North.
This upcoming series of upgrades includes overhead line equipment (OLE) installation, which will power electric trains between York, Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester in the future. Electrified passenger services are expected between York and Church Fenton this year, following their introduction between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge at the end of 2024.
The TRU team will also renew track and carry out other essential upgrades, enabling faster, more reliable trains to run through the area.
On the weekends of 8-9 and 15-16 March, trains between Leeds and York, and Leeds and Selby, will be diverted via Castleford. Local stations between Leeds and Church Fenton (Cross Gates, Garforth, East Garforth and Micklefield) will be served by rail replacement buses.
On the weekend of 22-23 March, there will be no trains between Leeds and York as TRU engineers replace two sets of points – moveable sections of track that allow trains to move from one line to another – and complete a crucial element of overhead electrification work. Trains to and from the west will start and finish at Leeds, whilst trains to and from the north will start and finish at York, with direct and all-stations rail replacement bus services running between the two cities.
Adam Sellers, Senior Sponsor for TRU, said:
“This work is vital in our delivery of faster, greener services that run on a cleaner, more reliable railway with greater capacity.
“I’d urge anyone travelling by train on any of these three weekends to plan their journey ahead of time at nationalrail.co.uk, as journeys will take slightly longer.”
Chris Nutton, Major Projects & TRU Director at TransPennine Express, said:
“The work taking place during these weekends is vital for the successful electrification of this part of the line, which will bring greener journeys and a cleaner railway to our customers.
“On these three weekends, some of the services on our North Route will run to an amended timetable, with diversionary routes being used on some days to keep customers on trains where possible. Where that’s not possible, rail replacement bus services will run to get people from A to B.
“We advise customers to check before they travel. For the people who plan to travel, we’ll have extra staff available at key stations to help people get where they need to go.”
Additionally, track and drainage upgrade work is currently taking place between Huddersfield and Leeds on weekdays, until Friday 21 March.
Notes to Editors
TRU will bring passengers:
• More trains to choose from and more seats. Our improvements will enable more
trains to run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York with up to six fast
services every hour between Leeds and Manchester and up to two stopping
services for local connectivity.
• Faster journeys so you can travel to your favourite towns and cities more quickly.
Our fastest journey times are forecast to be 63-66 minutes between Manchester
and York and 41-42 minutes between Manchester and Leeds.
• More reliable journeys with trains that run on-time
• Better stations across the Transpennine route, bringing passengers a better travel
experience through improved, more accessible stations
• Greener travel, reducing our carbon footprint and improving air quality. Our plans
aim to save up to 87,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – supporting the
government’s Net Zero objectives. We’re also developing a proposal to move more
goods by rail (up to 15 more freight trains each day.)
• Together, these freight trains are expected to remove over 1,000 lorries off the road each day.
TRU will bring local communities:
• Jobs for local people. Our workforce will be local, with 80% employment from
within a 40-mile radius of the route, and 60% employment from within a 25-mile
radius. With a current workforce of around 2000 people, we estimate that could
double over the course of the programme. We’ll employ an apprentice for every
£4million spent.
• Improved natural environments near the railway through 10% biodiversity net
gain across the route. This will create or enhance habitats for wildlife.
The multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) will bring this line into the
21st century with 70-miles of fully electric, digital railway. Our plans include:
• Electrifying the whole route between Manchester and York via Huddersfield and
Leeds
• Installing a new digital signalling system along the Transpennine route
• Doubling the number of tracks from two to four between Huddersfield and
Westtown in Dewsbury.
• Station improvements along the route to enhance customer experience, comfort
and accessibility
• Improving the railway on diversionary routes to allow more trains to run, to help
keep passengers and freight moving while the core Transpennine route is closed to
deliver essential upgrades. This will provide capacity and reliability improvements
for future too.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Ewan Bayliss
Communications Executive
Network Rail
ewan.bayliss@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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