Thursday 14 Mar 2024
Major Upgrade Promises Rail Investment for Shipley
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is investing around £100million in a new rail depot in Shipley.
The scheme, which was announced today (Thursday 14 March) by Rail Minister Huw Merriman MP during a visit to Shipley Station, forms part of the Government's £3.9billion investment into one of Britain's largest rail projects.
This multi-billion-pound railway programme is delivering major upgrades on the 70-mile route between Manchester, Leeds and York, transforming journeys across the North, better connecting towns and cities through more frequent, faster, greener trains, running on a better, cleaner and more reliable railway.
Initially, the rail depot will be used to house and maintain Northern’s fleet of electric trains on the Airedale and Wharfedale Lines while access in and out of their Neville Hill depot in Leeds is restricted during a future phase of TRU.
Northern will keep Shipley depot open following the completion of the upgrade, with as many as 100 permanent employees.
History has come full circle for the site, which was originally built as a goods yard alongside the railway line between Shipley and Bradford, opened by the Leeds & Bradford Railway Company in 1846. For decades it handled consignments of coal and stone from the nearby Wrose Quarry; when it returns to its railway roots it will be handling clean, modern electric trains.
The depot has most recently been used as a recycling centre operated by Crossley Evans, who have remained supportive and co-operative throughout the early development stages of the depot, which will redevelop an existing brownfield site within the town.
During the depot’s construction, TRU will continue to commit to its pledge to create local jobs and support local communities, with 65% of the team living within 25 miles and 80% living within 40 miles; and spending a minimum of 25% with local businesses to drive further growth in the North. To date, TRU has spent £420million (66%) with local businesses and £218million (34%) with small and medium-sized enterprises.
Neil Holm, Managing Director of TRU, said:
“We’re delighted to reveal our plans for this major investment in Shipley, demonstrating the Transpennine Route Upgrade’s commitment to supporting local communities and creating local jobs.
“This brand new depot will support rail services while we carry out essential improvements and will also leave long-lasting legacy benefits for the town going forward.”
Rob Warnes, Strategic Development Director for Northern, said:
“We’re delighted to announce this investment in our brand new TrainCare Centre for Shipley. As the future home for most of our electric train fleets for West Yorkshire, the new site will bring a wealth of highly-skilled jobs into the region, as well as providing resilience for our network across the North.
“It will play a key part in helping us to deliver our plans for the Transpennine Route Upgrade and beyond.”
Rail Minister Huw Merriman said:
“It’s great to be returning to West Yorkshire with another significant announcement to boost rail travel for passengers across the North, demonstrating this Government’s plan to investing in infrastructure and support the region’s huge potential for growth.
“Today marks my fourth visit to Bradford and its surrounding areas in the past five months, with this investment creating new jobs and more reliable services as we accelerate our multi-billion-pound Transpennine Route Upgrade to transform rail journeys for generations to come.”
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said:
“We welcome this major investment in Shipley, which is another vote of confidence in the district from industry and further positions Bradford as a great place to do business.
“The new depot will be an important part of operating rail in the north of England, increasing service reliability for rail service users. A new state-of-the-art facility such as this is one of the many tangible improvements to the rail network we are supporting, delivering greener, more accessible trains across the north.
“Increasing employment opportunities and developing skills through regeneration are key priorities for the Council, so it’s great to hear that local jobs will be created to facilitate this project in the immediate term, as well as up to 100 permanent skilled posts being created in the longer term.”
Notes to Editors
The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU)
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, and to date 269 apprentices have been employed.
- Improved natural environments near the railway through 10% biodiversity net gain across the route. This will create or enhance habitats for wildlife.
TRU will bring the Transpennine main 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.
Site History
The opening of the new Shipley depot is the latest phase of the site’s railway history.
The railway line between Leeds, Shipley and Bradford was opened by the Leeds & Bradford Railway in June 1846, when the fare between the two cities was as little as a shilling.
The impact of the railway was enormous for freight as well as passengers, with goods transferring from the Bradford extension of the Leeds Liverpool Canal, which ran parallel to the railway from Shipley to Bradford and was eventually abandoned in 1922.
Much of the early freight was the delivery of coal and the transportation of stone from the nearby Wrose Quarry. The site was extended to the south of Valley Road in 1877 to meet demand.
A small part of the site first started handling scrap metal during the First World War when there became a need to recycle metal. This demand gradually grew and took over the whole site in the 1970s.
An increase in passenger trains on the line from the 1990s due to rising popularity of rail travel meant it became harder for freight trains to serve the site, and this eventually ceased. It is the latest generation of modern electric trains on this line which will be serviced and maintained at the new Shipley depot.
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.
Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk