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Notes to Editors

Passenger handling

Northern services between Huddersfield and Halifax will use alternative transport and services from Sheffield will terminate at Lockwood, with rail replacement buses running between Lockwood at Huddersfield.

TransPennine Express services will run to an amended timetable, with services between Manchester Victoria and Leeds being using diversionary routes and not calling at Huddersfield. Rail replacement bus services will also be in use and customers are advised to check before they travel.

Affected dates

August

• Sunday 6 August 2023
• Sunday 13 August 2023
• Saturday 19 August to Sunday 20 August 2023

September and October

• Saturday 9 September to Sunday 10 September 2023
• Saturday 16 September to Sunday 17 September 2023
• Saturday 23 September to Sunday 24 September 2023
• Saturday 30 September to Sunday 1 October 2023
• Saturday 7 October to Sunday 8 October 2023
• Saturday 14 October to Sunday 15 October 2023
• Saturday 21 October to Sunday 22 October 2023

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 63-70 minutes between Manchester and York (saving 8-14 mins) and 42-44 minutes between Manchester and Leeds (saving 8-10 mins). This is compared to December 2022 timetable journey times of 74-82 minutes between Manchester and York and 48-55 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 reduce the carbon used to operate the railway by 250,000 tonnes of CO2e by 2035 and 6 million tonnes of CO2e over the next 60-years– supporting the government’s Net Zero objectives. That’s the equivalent of taking six million cars off the road for a year.
• We’re also progressing our designs which will enable up to 15 more freight trains per day to move more goods by rail. Together, these freight trains are expected to remove over 1,000 lorries off the road each day.
• Improved air quality due to electrification and modal shift.

TRU will also boost local economies and provide more opportunities for the local community

• Jobs for local people. It has been estimated that approx. 4,500 full-time employees will be required at peak levels to deliver TRU.
• TRU is employing locally with a target of 60% from within 25 miles and 80% from within 40 miles of the route. Presently 71% of TRU employees are classified as local employees but this will fluctuate as the programme grows.
• Apprentices; The programme is estimating to employ over 500 apprentices throughout the programme. Up to November 2022 the programme has employed 165 apprentices.
• Delivering a minimum 50p value to society for every £1 spent on construction on the TRU programme, generating £4.28 billion of social value (through employment, spending locally, engaging students etc)
• Spending a minimum 25% with local businesses to drive further growth in the North
• Preserving and enhancing the natural landscape to increase biodiversity and delivering a minimum 10% net gain
• Providing step free access to a minimum 99% of the customers using the route from intermediate stations
• Deliver 25,000 hours volunteering in the community to develop job skills and shape public spaces alongside the communities that use them

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 Dewsbury and installing a third track between Marsden and Huddersfield  
• 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.

We’ll need to close parts of the route while we deliver these major upgrades. We will keep passengers moving and economies growing while making the biggest investment in this line since it was built in the 1870s.