Thursday 20 Feb 2025
Road closure in Deighton to enable TRU work
- Region & Route:
- Eastern
From Friday 28 February until Monday 7 April, Whitacre Street in Deighton will be closed to vehicles as TRU engineers deliver upgrades.
Pedestrian access on the road will remain in place and access to Deighton station will not be impacted.
The closure will enable sheet piling to be carried out to the east of Whitacre Street bridge.
It’s part of TRU's wider work to replace the bridge with a new structure so that new track and overhead line equipment can be installed through the area, powering faster, cleaner journeys. Further road closures on Whitacre Street will be required this year to facilitate this work.
Gareth Hope, Sponsor for TRU, said:
“We appreciate that road closures aren’t ideal and thank the community for their patience. The closure is necessary to allow us to carry out vital work that will improve rail services through the area in the future.
“Advance warning signage will be in place on roads to raise awareness of the closure and to allow the local community to plan their journey ahead of time. Signposted diversionary routes will also be utilised, whilst road users are also encouraged to check roadworks.org for up-to-date info.”
The work is an integral part of our wider plans for Deighton station, which includes doubling the number of tracks from two to four and the reconstruction of the platforms. These upgrades will enable faster, more frequent trains to serve Deighton and run between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York, with more train carriages and seats for passengers.
A new footbridge with lifts will also be constructed making the station fully accessible, along with a new forecourt area, drop-off point and accessible parking zone.
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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