Tuesday 16 Apr 2024
Passengers advised to check before they travel in advance of weekday railway upgrades between Huddersfield and Leeds
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
Changes to weekday services between Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Leeds will be in place for a four-week period from Monday 22 April until Friday 17 May, as TRU complete major upgrades.
Throughout the work, a total of 4000m of new track will be installed between Morley and Cottingley station while troughing will be fitted to hold 3500m of new signal cables. While this takes place, engineers will also remove five redundant signal bases and undertake some work to the platforms at Morley station.
Environmental and ground surveys will be completed, including bat surveys, trial pits and coring work, in advance of future work along the route.
Diversionary routes and rail replacement buses will keep people on the move, but passengers are advised to plan ahead and check nationalrail.co.uk before travelling.
The work is part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade, a multi-billion pound programme of rail upgrades between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.
Paul Sumner, Senior Sponsor on the Transpennine Route Upgrade, said:
“I want to thank passengers in advance for bearing with us while we close parts of the railway between Huddersfield and Leeds to complete these major upgrades.
“This important work will ultimately help bring about major improvements for passengers travelling across the North of England, with faster, more reliable and greener services”.
Additional work for the Transpennine Route Upgrade will also take place on weekends around this period, affecting trains between Marsden, Huddersfield and Heaton Lodge.
Chris Nutton, Major Projects Directors at TransPennine Express, said:
“The major upgrade works that will be done between Huddersfield and Leeds over this four-week period are essential for the delivery of more reliable services for our customers.
“We will be running an amended timetable on our North route while these improvement works are being carried out, diverting trains between Huddersfield and Leeds. Rail replacement buses will also be in place to keep customers on the move for more local journeys. We’d like to advise customers to check before they travel.”
Notes to Editors
Services will be affected between Huddersfield – Dewsbury – Leeds from Mondays to Fridays (24 hour working), between Monday 22 April and Friday 17 May.
The same train services will also be affected on weekdays, between Monday 24 June and Friday 19 July.
TransPennine Express:
- Services between Huddersfield – Leeds will be diverted and will not run through Dewsbury.
- Rail replacement bus services will replace services between Huddersfield – Dewsbury – Leeds.
- Services from Hull will start/terminate at Leeds.
- Services from Saltburn to Manchester Airport will start/terminate at Manchester Victoria.
- Rail replacement buses will operate between Huddersfield – Manchester Airport via Stockport
Northern:
- Services between Leeds – Wigan via Brighouse will be diverted and will not run through Dewsbury.
- Rail replacement bus services will run between Halifax – Brighouse – Dewsbury – Leeds
Services between Marsden – Huddersfield – Heaton Lodge will also be affected on Saturdays and Sundays over the following weekends, with passengers advised to check before they travel:
- 18-19 May
- 25-26 May
- 1-2 June
- 8-9 June
- 15-16 June
TRU will bring better journeys for 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 station.
- 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), taking lorries off the road. 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.
- Improved natural environments near the railway through 10% biodiversity net gain across the route. This will create or enhance habitats for wildlife.
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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