YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Better layouts for a better railway - James Hodge

Better layouts for a better railway - James Hodge — Transcript

by Railway Engineering Institution (RailEI) · 19,258 words · 3,096 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:02He asked me to do a presentation on on
0:04on TransPennine. We weren't sure what
0:06what to what how to title title it. So,
0:09he went away and had a
0:10chat with Gareth Dennis, and he came up
0:12with a wonderful title I'm going to
0:13struggle to live up to,
0:15which is better layouts for a better
0:16railway. However, he did put a a
0:18commentary
0:20to accompany that. If I can get my
0:22computer to work. So, the challenges of
0:24designing TransPennine
0:26route upgrade track layouts for the
0:28Huddersfield through to Dewsbury area to
0:30enable 21st century timetable
0:33aspirations, increased capacity, and
0:35line speed increases.
0:37So, I'm actually going to touch on a
0:39slightly wider area of TransPennine, but
0:41still mostly focused on on west of
0:43Leeds.
0:46So, what what is TIU? So, TIU is the
0:50upgrading and enhancement of the route
0:52from Manchester Victoria through
0:53Stalybridge, Huddersfield, Leeds through
0:55to York.
0:57So, it's a multi-billion pound project.
1:00It's varied in size and funding levels
1:03for a period of time. It's been anything
1:06from its lowest funding level of 3
1:08billion pounds up to potentially now 11
1:10billion pounds with some additional
1:12works that we're actually taking taking
1:14to scope.
1:15So, that's
1:17um
1:18including new timetable, rolling stock,
1:20and a lot of infrastructure
1:21interventions to improve over 70 miles
1:24of route, and also
1:26another 70 70 to 80 miles of diversion
1:29route, which was has been already
1:31upgraded to facilitate diverting trains
1:33while we build the core works.
1:37So, core objectives of the project, more
1:40trains with more seats, that's mostly
1:41rolling stock requirements, faster
1:43journeys,
1:45which is journey time, so aspirations
1:46for journey time being 42 minutes
1:48between Manchester and Leeds,
1:51and 64 minutes between Manchester and
1:53York, which is roughly a 15-minute
1:56improvement on the current journey
1:58times.
1:59More reliable journeys, so that's trying
2:01to keep trains running on time, so
2:03improve performance along the route,
2:05better stations, so first and last mile,
2:08so improvements to stations themselves,
2:10not just the the trains that run on the
2:11network and stop at those stations, but
2:13the station environment, and getting
2:15even from getting from the car park to
2:17getting on the train
2:18is an important part of the program.
2:21And then a greener travel, so that is in
2:23essence electrification of the route.
2:24However, we
2:26most recent change to our remit is the
2:28inclusion of intermodal freight
2:31over the Pennines via the Diggle route
2:33because we're electrifying the route,
2:35it's not a huge step further to gauge
2:37cleared for W12.
2:39So, we've now got an additional
2:41requirement to clear the whole route,
2:43which is actually already clear as part
2:44of the works, but provide sufficient
2:45paths to also run those intermodal
2:47freight trains in addition to all the
2:49passenger trains
2:50that we're already remitted for.
2:53So,
2:54key points I'm going to
2:55touch on today, greener travel, which in
2:57essence means electrification, so I'll
2:59just talk through what we're
3:00electrifying on the route. Faster
3:01journeys are obviously line line speed
3:03increases, more trains, rolling stock,
3:07but also the capacity to run those
3:09trains, and then more reliable trains is
3:11performance and operational flexibility
3:13at various points on the route.
3:15So,
3:17greener travel. So, various parts of the
3:20north of England are electrified at
3:21different points. So, the green
3:24is what was already electrified roughly
3:2510 years ago. All the purple is the
3:27recently completed Northwest
3:28electrification project. So, everything
3:31between Manchester and Liverpool,
3:34Bolton, Wigan, and even up to Blackpool.
3:37So,
3:38and interestingly, originally Manchester
3:41Victoria to Stalybridge was also part of
3:43the NW but I'll touch on that in a
3:44moment
3:46cuz that was actually postponed and
3:48put into the TIU program. So, everything
3:50in red there is was originally the
3:52electrification proposals for TIU.
3:55Back in roughly 2018, there was a
4:00big
4:01funding challenge, we we actually
4:05de-scoped various parts of the route.
4:07Part of that, we lost part a lot of
4:08electrification.
4:10So, Andrew Jones, our
4:12transport secretary at the time, who was
4:14very keen on for some reason very keen
4:17on um
4:18partial electrification. I can't
4:20remember the correct term for it, but
4:21basically trains you you put the wires
4:24at where you get the most value for
4:25money, i.e. in this instance
4:28Huddersfield to Leeds where you've got
4:29electrified stopping services, um and
4:33Stalybridge to Manchester because of all
4:35the services in the Northwest that run
4:37through to Stalybridge. But the through
4:38trains being bi-mode trains are capable
4:40of running without the wires. So, we we
4:42lost and and created discontinuous
4:46electrification.
4:47Luckily,
4:48that was reversed. So, although we
4:50originally lost
4:52um
4:53Ashburys up to Miles
4:55Miles Platting. Can't point on my
4:57computer very well.
4:59This end, we lost the Stalybridge to
5:01Huddersfield, Leeds Leeds through to
5:03Church Fenton, and Micklefield through
5:06to Selby.
5:07Most of that has come back in with the
5:09exception of
5:10the very Manchester end to Ashburys
5:12line,
5:13Micklefield to Selby.
5:16That itself creates challenges cuz the
5:18original reason for electrifying to
5:20Selby was to allow the stopping services
5:22through Selby to an electric service. If
5:24you're trying to run stopping services
5:25in amongst fast services, you want your
5:27stopping trains to have its
5:29highest possible performance to avoid
5:31the fast trains catching them. So,
5:34it is still a shortfall on the overall
5:36remit, but we've got at least got the
5:37through route through the north of
5:38England
5:39as fully electrified.
5:42So, rolling stock.
5:45This is actually already happened. We've
5:47seen the new trains out on site out on
5:49the tracks, but roughly 5 years ago we
5:52got a new fleet. For once we actually
5:54got a new fleet instead of trying to
5:55super old old rolling stock and
5:58reintroduce them and and up up rev them
6:00for the future. So, what did we actually
6:02get? So, TransPennine
6:05actually got two sets, but the one that
6:06they're actually keeping is the 802
6:08bi-mode. So, it's a Hitachi train.
6:12IEP series Hitachi train that runs in
6:14diesel or electric.
6:17It's interesting that the performance of
6:19these trains is isn't significantly
6:20higher than the Class 185 that we've had
6:22for the last 20 20 25 years, which was
6:26specifically designed for TransPennine
6:28route. The big difference with the
6:31the 802 is it can run higher than 100
6:32miles an hour. So,
6:34the original TransPennine scheme was
6:36actually electrification only scheme,
6:38but there was very little value in doing
6:40that as in output benefits because those
6:43trains could still only run at the speed
6:44of the same acceleration at the same
6:46speed over the over the Pennines. So,
6:47the only place you actually got a better
6:49journey time was north of York where the
6:51802 could do more than 100 miles an hour
6:53on these core main line.
6:54So, that's one of the reasons the
6:56original 2012 electrification scheme was
6:59briefly paused and then was brought back
7:01in as an enhancement project. So, the
7:03802 obviously electric mode, it it's
7:05it's greener,
7:07but doesn't make a huge difference to
7:08performance on the route. However, it is
7:09five coaches, not three, so you've got
7:11significant capacity bumps on seats
7:14increase.
7:16Northern, introduction of electric only
7:18Class 331, which are one of the highest
7:22powered fastest accelerating commuter
7:24trains in the country. So, that helps to
7:27keep the stopping trains away from the
7:29fast trains separately.
7:32Apologies for me going 100 miles an
7:35hour. I've got 146 slides to get
7:37through. That's the bad news. The good
7:38news is very few of them have words in
7:40them. They are mostly pictures, so we
7:42should be able to get through through
7:43them at a fair old pace.
7:46So, line speed increases on the route.
7:48Faster journeys doesn't necessarily mean
7:50we need to go quickly.
7:52We actually need to avoid going slowly.
7:54Slow speed is where you get the
7:56removing slow speed areas is where you
7:58get your greatest benefit. So, look
8:01chart there. Instead of thinking of
8:02miles per hour, think
8:04hours per mile, or in this case seconds
8:06per mile. So, the graph the graph there
8:08is is showing how long it takes for a
8:10train to travel a mile at a given mile
8:13per hour. So,
8:16low speeds is where you get your
8:18greatest benefit. So, if you improve
8:21So, the difference in time for a train
8:23to travel 1 mile between 25 and 30 miles
8:25an hour is 24 seconds faster if you can
8:28do it at 30.
8:29Whereas if you go from 45 to 50, it's
8:31only 8 seconds. From 75 to 80, it's 3
8:34seconds. And from 105 to 110, it's only
8:361.6 seconds.
8:38That's probably a bit easier to
8:39understand on the graph on the other
8:41side in the
8:4315 miles an hour it takes 2 minutes to
8:45travel a mile.
8:46If you double the speed, you halve the
8:48time. So, you've saved a minute in
8:50journey time.
8:51You've gone from 2 minutes to 1 minute.
8:53If you double the speed again to 60
8:54miles an hour, you halve the time again,
8:56but you've now only saved
8:581 minute. So, let me get this right. 30
9:01seconds instead of 1 minute.
9:04You double the speed again to 120 miles
9:06an hour, you halve the time again, but
9:07you've now only saved
9:10how many seconds is that?
9:1230 seconds. So, it's 2 minutes
9:15down to 1 minute, down to 30 seconds
9:17each time you double the speed. So, you
9:18get your real bang for your book from
9:21tackling the low speed areas.
9:23So, that's
9:24where do we need to focus our effort.
9:26Also,
9:27um
9:28we're moving to digital signaling, so we
9:30don't need to think just miles per hour,
9:31we actually need to think kilometers per
9:33hour. So, when we're trying to squeeze
9:35the maximum we can out of a certain
9:36curve. So, we'll we'll we'll work out
9:38what the what what the radius is, and
9:41then work out what's the maximum speed
9:42we can get from that that that curve.
9:45So, you'll be limited, and then you work
9:47out the speed, and then you round down
9:48to 5 miles an hour. However, there may
9:51be a kph increment in between that that
9:53could be picked. So, as you go down the
9:55list, Uh red number is obviously the
9:57whole number on there. So,
9:59um you've got mph and km/h increments
10:02that fit between those mph. So, we need
10:04to be really careful cuz if we just
10:06design in mph and then with the future
10:08digital signaling, we convert to kph,
10:11if we've done it badly,
10:14we end up losing lots of speed and lots
10:16of journey time. So, if we literally
10:17design at 90 mph and it this design
10:20design doesn't work at 90.1 mph, which
10:23is
10:24unlikely, but it is possible. Transition
10:25lengths being
10:27uh totally on the limit, you end up
10:28having to round down 5 kph or 4.8 kph uh
10:32when you convert to to kilometers per
10:34hour. So, it's important that we think
10:36about that
10:37um when when we're designing. Similarly,
10:3940 mph, we really need to design at 40.4
10:42mph so that we hit the kph kph
10:45alternative.
10:49Uh another limit worth bearing in mind
10:51is uh there's quite a lot 75 mph line
10:54speeds on the railway. Uh there is a
10:56reason for that. Um it's classed as
10:57lower speed. So, from a track quality
10:59perspective, it's a 35-m wave length um
11:03uh analysis.
11:04Now, 35 m/s is 77.8 mph.
11:09So, 125 kph is actually still in the
11:13lower speed category. So, that is
11:15actually your threshold. It's not 75
11:16mph, it's actually 125 kph. So, if
11:20you're trying to squeeze a little bit
11:21more out of the railway without having
11:22to want to have to start measuring all
11:24your track quality against uh centimeter
11:26uh wavelength, then 125 uh kph is is
11:30your limit. So, there's lots of things
11:32to to consider in there within your
11:34designs.
11:36So, I mentioned
11:37uh oh, sorry, gradient. So, this is the
11:40line speed proposed line speed profile
11:42for west of Leeds from uh
11:44Manchester Victoria through to Leeds.
11:46Uh red is uh the up direction, so it's
11:49up to Manchester. Orange is down to
11:52Leeds.
11:53Uh the dotted line is the acceleration
11:55of acceleration deceleration of a Class
11:58802 in electric mode.
12:00Just to show how closely the uh the
12:02train does actually follow that line
12:03speed profile. And then the green line
12:05on the bottom uh are the gradients. So,
12:08we have some quite challenging gradients
12:09on the route, which is why train
12:10performance is is quite important. Uh
12:13so, coming from Leeds at the right-hand
12:14side, uh from Whitehall up to Copley
12:16Hill, you've got short stretch of 1 in
12:1868. Then a generic gradient of 120 all
12:21the way up the hill to Morley Tunnel.
12:24Uh back down the other side, 1 in 119
12:26again, so the same gradient pretty much
12:28down to Dewsbury. It's pretty much flat
12:30until you get to Heaton Lodge. You've
12:31got short length of 1 in 70s 78 to
12:34Heaton Lodge. And then you've got 1 in
12:36105 climb all the way to Standedge
12:38Tunnel.
12:40120 1 in 125 down the other side to
12:42Stalybridge. Uh then some short lengths
12:44of 1 in 75 until you get to Miles
12:46Platting, which is the really aggressive
12:48uh bank from Manchester Victoria to
12:50Miles Platting at 1 in 47.
12:52So, challenging gradients on the route.
12:54Uh there's only one one short level
12:56stretch, so you've got gradients
12:58absolutely everywhere. So, the one short
13:00um level portion within Morley um
13:02Standedge Tunnel
13:04um actually had water troughs in. So,
13:05I'm digressing massively here, but uh
13:07uh a little fun fact, uh water troughs
13:09within the tunnel. It's the only place
13:11in the country we had water troughs in a
13:13tunnel. So, for those who don't know
13:14what water troughs are for,
13:16we don't have them anymore, it's for
13:17steam trains to pick up water on the
13:19move. So, that little scoop that would
13:20come down and literally they they they
13:22um the inertia in the water would force
13:24the shoot up uh the shoot and into the
13:26tender from from the top.
13:32So, speeds. I mentioned the low speed
13:34areas being being the key locations, and
13:36there are a few of them on on
13:37TransPennine. So, coming out of
13:38Manchester Victoria, uh 40 mph going up
13:41Miles Platting uh throughout uh me
13:43sorry, at the throughout to Manchester
13:45Victoria,
13:46uh increasing to 50 and then dropping
13:47back down to 30 for the curve at Miles
13:49Platting. So, the curve at Miles
13:51Platting is a significant constraint for
13:53journey times. Next one is the 25 mph
13:55junction at Stalybridge West.
13:58Uh we've then got uh coming out of
14:00Standedge Tunnel, 45 mph at Marsden
14:02coming out of Standedge Tunnel. 25 mph
14:04through the station at Huddersfield. And
14:0745 mph at Marsden on the approaches to
14:10sorry, on Morley on the approaches to
14:12Leeds.
14:13So, a lot of those slow speed areas
14:14we've actually already tackled.
14:17Uh I mentioned earlier about NWEP Phase
14:195 electrification. They did the enabling
14:21works for electrification, i.e. the line
14:23speed increases. So, the portion between
14:25Baguley Fold and Stalybridge had already
14:27been completed before before TRU
14:29restarted in
14:31um 2017.
14:33However, since then we've uh progressed
14:36um
14:37no regret schemes, so tackling those low
14:39speed areas, the places that had had the
14:41highest benefit for the minimum spend.
14:45So, uh TR uh s
14:48those areas being W1, so the west of
14:50Leeds is split into W numbers, east of
14:52Leeds is split into E
14:54uh E numbers. So, on west we have W1, 2,
14:573, and 4. Those areas were then sub
14:59split down with with letters as well.
15:00So, uh W1 was uh W1A was Manchester
15:04Victoria approaches and Miles Platting.
15:06Um
15:08the 2A was uh Stalybridge, and then W4
15:12uh is Morley and the line speed
15:13increases between Morley and Leeds.
15:16So, a quick update on where we're up to.
15:19Uh completed the works in
15:212020 for uh line speed increases coming
15:24out of Manchester Victoria. So, that
15:26involved the replacement of uh Dantzic
15:28Bridge just outside Manchester Victoria
15:30station, which was a major major closure
15:32of both the tram lines and the the
15:34railway. Um
15:36the the the bridge not only was life
15:39expired and needing renewing anyway, we
15:40couldn't do line speed increases over it
15:42without without doing those works.
15:46So, Miles Platting curve. Uh we actually
15:48looked at various options for Miles
15:49Platting curve. Uh more major scheme
15:51demolishing several bridges and
15:52remodeling junctions and going well
15:53outside the network rail boundary.
15:56Um which was 60 mph with a 55 mph scheme
15:59that stayed within boundary. We could
16:01see remodel the entirety of Miles
16:03Platting junction.
16:06We had a a lesser scheme or the smaller
16:08scheme was 50 mph, which only required
16:11um some minor earthworks and
16:13reconstruction or widening of uh Queen's
16:16Road Bridge.
16:18Now, through development, we ended up
16:19So, that's the option we picked. Uh
16:20through development, we actually ended
16:22up with a 55 mph scheme utilizing
16:24exceptional efficiencies with this just
16:26slightly cutting the corner off a little
16:27bit more.
16:28Um what does it look like? So, widening
16:31Queen Street Bridge. Um that's the some
16:33of the final engineering works. And you
16:35can see the old alignment on the
16:36right-hand side um the new uh
16:39cutting the corner off scheme on the
16:40left-hand side.
16:44So, that's a minute of journey time
16:46saving just with one one intervention
16:48that's about quarter of a mile long.
16:50Stalybridge.
16:52Um we looked at various schemes, some
16:54capacity schemes, some line speed
16:56increase schemes. So, quickly we'll see
16:58through these just to show the volume of
16:59the work that that we've actually looked
17:00at on TRU. So, that's that's the
17:02existing layout as a single line diagram
17:04form at Stalybridge. So, it's 50 mph at
17:06the west end of the station and 50 mph
17:09towards Manchester Piccadilly, which is
17:11the bottom left. Um uh sorry. Yeah,
17:14bottom left. Top left is the route to uh
17:16Manchester Victoria, which is now the
17:17main route. So, ironically, the junction
17:20was actually re-handed 15-20 years ago
17:22um to make uh Piccadilly the priority
17:25route. And the intervention was
17:27implemented uh in the same couple of
17:29months that the DfT actually decided
17:30they wanted to send the trains back to
17:31Manchester Victoria. So, uh we re-handed
17:34the junction and we haven't re-handed it
17:36again. We've actually made it the same
17:37speed both ways, so they can choose
17:39whichever option they want in the future
17:40and it doesn't actually matter. So,
17:42we did look at numerous schemes. Uh
17:45an entire bypass scheme, so miss out
17:47Stalybridge station altogether.
17:50Um with the bypass station and put
17:52platforms on them, we can lose
17:53Stalybridge West junction.
17:55Um we looked at just line speed increase
17:58schemes without changing the capacity,
17:59so a version of 10.2 is is the one that
18:02we ended up with.
18:04Um looked to move the junction to the
18:06other end of the station.
18:08Looked to moving the station to the
18:09other end of the junction. All different
18:11ways of achieving um similar outputs. We
18:14looked at options that uh grade
18:16separated, so we didn't go for line
18:17speed increase, but went for capacity
18:19only and grade separated the junction
18:20with a quite severely graded uh flyover
18:23at the west end of the station.
18:25Um and then the the the very expensive
18:28scheme that nobody was interested in,
18:29which is do both, grade separate and get
18:31your full line speed increases and
18:33completely remodel the station at the
18:34same time.
18:36So, what did we end up with? Um
18:39So, in essence, exactly the same
18:41operational capability, but at a higher
18:43speed. So, the open and out junction
18:4525 mph open and out junction to get to
18:47Manchester Victoria has been replaced uh
18:49by a fixed up juice double junction at
18:5250 mph, so the route is now 50 mph both
18:55ways.
18:57Completed Easter of this year.
19:00Or last year, sorry. Uh with the OLE
19:02completed this year. So, about uh middle
19:04of August, the first
19:06uh electric train from uh Manchester
19:08Victoria to Stalybridge uh was entered
19:10into service,
19:11uh which has made a a huge difference.
19:14So,
19:15um
19:16electrification to Stalybridge. Why was
19:18electrification to Stalybridge so
19:20important and why is it an early phase
19:22of TRU? Cuz the remainder of the route
19:24beyond Stalybridge isn't going to happen
19:25for at least another 7 years. So, why
19:27was it important to get get the wires as
19:29far as Stalybridge? The reason for that
19:31is lack of um platform capacity at
19:33Manchester Victoria.
19:35So, all the electrified uh services that
19:37we've introduced as part of NWEP from
19:39the west of Manchester coming to
19:40Manchester, get to Manchester Victoria,
19:43and they can't go any further because
19:44there's no wires. So,
19:45uh two of those services are now all
19:47don't terminate in Manchester Victoria.
19:48They actually terminate at Stalybridge.
19:50So, we need the capability of those
19:51electric trains to carry on through
19:53Marsden Victoria. So, that's that's the
19:54reason why Stalybridge was one of the
19:57early electrification schemes.
20:01Moving over towards Leeds, so Morley
20:02station.
20:04Um
20:05So,
20:06existing Morley station, or the now
20:08redundant Morley station on the
20:09right-hand side there, immediately
20:10outside the portal of Morley tunnel, on
20:12quite a sharp curve. So, on the
20:14left-hand photo there, you can see the
20:15old station in the background, and the
20:17construction of a new station in the
20:18foreground.
20:20So, the existing station is on roughly a
20:21450-m radius, which limits the speed to
20:24about 55 mph. But, because of its very
20:27tight six-foot, it's actually limited to
20:2840 mph to get any passing clearances, 45
20:30mph to get any passing clearances. So,
20:33combination of tight six-foot and radii
20:37meant very low speed through the
20:38existing platform. Simply moving that
20:40station 300 m did two things. One, went
20:44from a 450-m radius to a 730-m radius,
20:47which meant we could up the speed from
20:4845 to 70 mph. Just by moving the station
20:51onto a slightly flatter bit of curve.
20:54It also enabled us
20:55to fit a signal between the tunnel and
20:57the station.
20:59It doesn't sound that important, but it
21:00is when it comes to managing trains
21:02within the tunnel. So, we've actually
21:03introduced signals within tunnel within
21:05a tunnel.
21:06We're applying what we call tunnel
21:07controls. So, the round London
21:09Thameslink, they have multiple trains in
21:11the tunnel at the same time, but they're
21:12London's a special case. We're
21:14generically not allowed to have multiple
21:16trains in the tunnel at the same time.
21:17So, we have what's called tunnel
21:18controls, which does allow us to do
21:20that, but we'll only allow the second
21:22train into the tunnel if the first train
21:24has a signaled cleared cleared exit. So,
21:26you're not planning on stopping the
21:28train in the tunnel. You could in
21:29emergency, but you don't plan on
21:30stopping the train.
21:31So, if that first of the two trains
21:33stops at Morley, the second train can't
21:35enter the tunnel.
21:36But, if it's one signal section beyond
21:38the tunnel, it now can because it's
21:39cleared the exit signal. Um so, it's
21:42actually from an operational perspective
21:43and signaling perspective, it makes a
21:45big difference, not just from a line
21:46speed increase perspective.
21:50Uh that's the track track works enabling
21:52works uh before we started building the
21:53platforms.
21:55Uh and that's our
21:56finished station as of last year.
21:59Few teething problems getting the lifts
22:01lifts working, and there was some
22:03there was an issue with the copers uh
22:05being out of tolerance to the track on
22:07one of the platforms, uh but all that
22:09all that is sorted now.
22:11I'll come back to talk about platforms
22:12on curves later on and train dispatch
22:14because uh
22:15the were issues associated with them.
22:18Um nothing to do with line speed
22:20increase, but we also put additional
22:22crossover in at Batley.
22:24Um
22:25This is actually needed for next uh next
22:28year's W or the start of the W3 big
22:30blockades next year. So, this having a
22:32crossover, the facing crossover at
22:34Batley allows a stopping train to run
22:36from Leeds, crossover onto the wrong
22:38line, and run signaled wrong road
22:39through Batley station to Dewsbury,
22:41where it can turn back and go to Leeds,
22:43which means we can still operate a Leeds
22:45to um Dewsbury shuttle service picking
22:48up all the stopping stations while we're
22:50doing our major blockades around
22:52Huddersfield.
22:55So, back to line speed profile. So, I
22:57mentioned all the elements of work
22:59that's already been done.
23:01Uh one phase that's still in development
23:02it is W2B and W2C.
23:06Um so, the reason part of the reason
23:08that's still in development is this is
23:10the one part of the scope that's still
23:11not fixed. So, I mentioned earlier about
23:13introduction of additional freight
23:15trains. Um
23:17we require additional capacity, i.e. a
23:19third line uh between Marsden and
23:22Huddersfield to accommodate the slow
23:24trains running in the up direction up up
23:26the hill. So, because of the evolving
23:28scope associated with freight, um that
23:31portion of the program has has gone
23:33back. So, that's still in grip three.
23:35Um but, it's it's it's moving forward
23:37again for completion, I think, in 2032.
23:42Uh
23:43that part of the route also includes our
23:45worst structures from a gauge clearance
23:46perspective. Uh Stalybridge tunnel and
23:49Scout tunnel are
23:51tiny really really really small tunnels.
23:53Uh getting electrification and W12
23:56through there is about a 600-mil track
23:58lower to get through through the
23:59tunnels.
24:00Um particularly Stalybridge, it isn't um
24:03in the best of uh condition. The western
24:06half has shallow mine workings
24:08immediately under the tunnel, and the
24:10western third is sat on running sands.
24:13Uh so, there's no nice transition
24:13halfway through the tunnel. We're trying
24:15to do a track lower all the way through.
24:16So, we have a slab track solution for
24:19for both of those those tunnels, uh but
24:21it's a fairly major intervention and
24:23major closure of the route to to
24:24facilitate
24:26those works. There are various
24:28overbridges as well, but the tunnels are
24:29the are the main issue.
24:31Um then the the the the juicy element of
24:34today's presentation, which I've not
24:35even actually got onto yet, um
24:37is the W3 footprint, or in this case W3
24:40and the remainder of W4, which is around
24:42the Dewsbury area. So, it's either W3/4
24:46or W3 quarters, depending whether you
24:48want to be facetious or not. Um
24:51So, I mentioned earlier
24:53about fast trains catching stopping
24:55trains. It's not always good to go for
24:57really high line speeds cuz all it does
24:58it means the fast train catches the
25:00stopper quicker.
25:01Um so, generically on the route, we
25:03haven't really gone above 80 mph with
25:05one exception, and that's on the W3
25:07footprint.
25:08It's a big difference on the W3
25:09footprint though. Um we have four
25:11tracks, which I'm going to explain. So,
25:13it's currently two, but we're increasing
25:14it to four. The fact that we've
25:15segregated the fast trains from the slow
25:17trains and the freight trains, that
25:19differential now no longer makes
25:20difference. In fact, it helps cuz it
25:22allows the fast trains to to be able to
25:23get past the stoppers.
25:27So, more capacity. So, uh that was
25:30Heaton Lodge back in the 1980s before we
25:32stripped stripped out. So, the core to
25:34the right is now one track, and the
25:35second track from the left is also
25:37missing.
25:40So, where is W3 on the route? The
25:41section from Huddersfield through to uh
25:44just short of Dewsbury.
25:46A bit more of a sexy map than the one I
25:47had up earlier.
25:50And the key portion of that it's well,
25:52it's four-tracking all the way from
25:53Huddersfield to to Ravensthorpe, but the
25:55key portion is is Heaton Lodge to
25:57Ravensthorpe
25:58in the middle.
26:00So, why why is this key to TIU? So, what
26:03services run on TIU?
26:05So, we've got TransPennine services, uh
26:07which are we the remit is for four fast
26:10and two semi-fast services
26:12um
26:13between York and Hull through Leeds,
26:15Huddersfield through to Manchester
26:16Victoria.
26:18So, we've got TransPennine six
26:20TransPennine trains running.
26:22We've got four different one-an-hour
26:24services for for for stoppers, which uh
26:27mostly Northern, some of them being
26:28transferred to TransPennine, but they're
26:30going back to Northern again. But,
26:31you've got a Bradford-Huddersfield
26:32stopper, Leeds-Huddersfield stopper,
26:34Wakefield-Huddersfield stopper, and also
26:37a Calder Valley to Leeds stopper. You've
26:39now also got the TransPennine uh Leeds
26:42via Castleford to Manchester Piccadilly
26:43stopper as well in amongst all that lot.
26:46So, very conflicting moves across that
26:48that middle part of the route. Got Grand
26:50Central every other hour coming across
26:52the route from from Bradford through
26:54towards Wakefield.
26:56Um
26:57we did have East Coast wanting to run
26:59trains to Huddersfield, but those have
27:01now
27:02uh been that proposal's been withdrawn.
27:04And there's a lot of freight,
27:06uh which was originally predominantly
27:08via the Calder Valley and Brighouse, so
27:10from the top left. Uh with the recent
27:12change in the scope to for W12, all
27:14those W12 services run via Diggle. So,
27:17there's up to 15 trains a day each way
27:19via Diggle, as well as the 15-ish trains
27:22that run via the Calder Valley.
27:26So,
27:27that portion is called on the on on on
27:29on the program is the eye of the needle.
27:31It's the really really difficult part on
27:33TIU, and that's the area where we really
27:35need to deal with capacity. So, all the
27:37schemes I've just talked about are all
27:38line speed increase schemes. None of
27:40them got nothing to do with capacity. W3
27:43is a capacity scheme with line speed
27:45increases within it.
27:48So, not only do we have all these
27:50conflicting crossing services, we've
27:53also got um
27:55fast trains catching stopping trains.
27:56So, between Leeds and Huddersfield,
27:58there's seven station stops for a
27:59stopper. It pretty much takes four
28:01station stops for a fast train to catch
28:02a stopping train if they're in
28:05if they're in 15-minute separation. So,
28:08the ability to remove that stopper from
28:11the path of a fast train by the time it
28:12gets to Dewsbury or at least
28:13Ravensthorpe, it it is very important.
28:19So, what does that mean? So, that's the
28:20line diagram of the existing layout
28:22between Huddersfield through to
28:23Ravensthorpe. So, apart from that, a
28:25short three-track section from Heaton
28:27Lodge through to Ravensthorpe, which
28:28actually picks up the
28:30uh up um Wakefield trains, so the
28:33westbound Wakefield trains.
28:35Um
28:36we've pretty much got two-track railway.
28:39So, what we're proposing to do for TIU,
28:42uh I mentioned four-tracking, that's
28:43exactly what we're doing. We need to
28:45create fast lines to remove those four
28:47fast and two semi-fast services away
28:49from everything else. So, what does that
28:51look like?
28:53In essence, we turn the existing railway
28:56into a two-track railway.
28:58So, we get rid of the third line, put a
29:00double junction in at Ravensthorpe, and
29:02then we add two fast lines over the top
29:04to to get the fast trains out of there.
29:06I've slightly oversimplified, but that's
29:07in essence what we're doing. We're
29:08stripping down what's already there
29:10slightly, and then adding two through
29:11lines that avoids all the other traffic.
29:15So, from a line diagram perspective,
29:17that's what it looks like. So, I'm
29:18actually starting with a scheme that
29:19we've we've actually progressing, and
29:21I'll quickly run through all the the the
29:2310 other options that we we did actually
29:25look at at one time or another.
29:27So,
29:29um
29:31if I was going to talk through the
29:32option selection process, it would
29:33literally be a three-hour presentation.
29:35So, I'm I'm going to talk through the
29:36options that were considered, but not
29:37how they were considered and how they
29:39were sifted. Uh but, it was a very very
29:42uh exhaustive process.
29:44Uh it was it was probably three three
29:46different stages to get down from 10
29:47options then down to five options and
29:49then down to two and then to one. So, it
29:51was actually four stages. Uh
29:53we will call expert panel so
29:55um
29:56the appropriate development for the
29:57level of um
29:59investigation was being done. So, each
30:01time you sifted them down, you did more
30:02development until you got to the last
30:04two when we actually designed uh proper
30:06schemes and costed them and made a full
30:07operational assessment of the options.
30:09So, the version that's on screen there
30:12is is is the scheme that's been adopted
30:14and that's the
30:15four tracks all the way through on the
30:17south fast lines on the south side of
30:18the railway
30:20all the way between Ravensthorpe and
30:21Huddersfield with a grade separated
30:22junction at at Ravensthorpe including
30:25grade separating the slow lines coming
30:27from Leeds which we'll talk about a
30:29little bit more in a moment. The other
30:30main contender uh that got down to the
30:33last two so, layout number five in this
30:34instance um
30:36was uh fast lines to the north as far as
30:39Heaton Lodge then have your grade
30:40separation and then to the south as you
30:42as you're running to Huddersfield. Um
30:44so, operationally um it was meant at an
30:47at-grade junction at Ravensthorpe uh and
30:49there were different comp- uh
30:50complications from a consent perspective
30:53about having a uh grade separation in
30:55what's in essence in a in a cutting or
30:57pass half of it in a cutting at
30:59Ravensthorpe as opposed to highly
31:01visible um
31:03uh intrusive grade separation in the
31:05Heaton Lodge area. Uh but, it was a very
31:07very close decision.
31:09Um I think it was the the the option we
31:11chose was actually the slightly more
31:12expensive option uh but, it was easy
31:14from a consent perspective and
31:16operationally the better better layout
31:18because of the extra grade separation.
31:21Other options, Heaton Lodge area the the
31:24footprint uh was extremely constrained
31:26so,
31:28um
31:29this portion of the route to the uh west
31:31of Heaton Lodge is London Northwestern.
31:33Heaton Lodge through to Ravensthorpe is
31:34actually L&W Junction railway but, the
31:36London Northwestern fairly typical
31:38London Northwestern if they have four
31:40track railways but, they did it on the
31:41cheap but, it was four tracks at six
31:42foot so, you're pretty tight for space
31:44uh to to reinstate that. And in the
31:47Deighton area um
31:48we'd sold off some land so, uh there's a
31:50big warehouse which was at
31:51Poundstretcher I can't remember who owns
31:53it now. Um but, where they've sold off
31:55adjacent sidings and they've actually
31:57encroached on the on the main running
31:58lines as well so, it's very very tight
31:59area uh in there. So, we looked at an
32:02option of let's go down to three tracks
32:04for a short section to make it easier
32:06operationally that didn't work. So, that
32:08was that was removed.
32:10Um no new grade separation so, use the
32:12existing underpass at Cooper Bridge at
32:14Heaton Lodge.
32:15Uh and then work everything around that
32:18but, you've now got four at-grade
32:19junctions within about a mile and a half
32:21so, you've got Heaton Lodge
32:23Heaton Lodge but, two new junctions to
32:25get the slow lines across and Bradley
32:27Junction. So, operationally having four
32:28at-grade junctions within such a short
32:30length was was never really going to
32:32work so, that got discounted.
32:35Uh keep the slow lines on the north all
32:37the way through up to Huddersfield.
32:40Uh
32:40two disadvantages you now got the
32:42Bradley Bradley Wood curve so, you've
32:43got the slow trains joining the fast
32:45lines
32:46uh which means now they can pick up
32:47Bradley station if you put the new
32:49station on the old re- bubble station on
32:51the slow lines.
32:52Uh but, the fast lines are also taking
32:54the lower speed route so, going through
32:55the underpass at Cooper Bridge is 70 mph
32:58where the scheme we've we've picked is
32:59100 mph. And you're going around the
33:02north side of Huddersfield station which
33:03you'll see later as to why it's slower
33:05but, it's 25-30 mph around the back of
33:08the station whereas the lower number
33:09platforms at the bottom of the higher
33:11speed. So, to be at the south side is
33:13actually better for the fast line. So,
33:14all that works uh there are additional
33:17uh operational conflicts with the
33:19Bradford stopper joining the fast lines
33:21and it's a lower speed solution.
33:24You could get rid of the
33:25Bradford trains by putting a massive
33:26flyover in but, that was uh verging on
33:28unachievable uh
33:31without building a extremely long
33:32viaduct.
33:34Uh that's actually a variant on the
33:35scheme that we've adopted.
33:38Uh
33:39instead of having the fast lines to the
33:40north or the south, put them through in
33:42the middle. So, instead of grade
33:43separating ones, we do half a grade
33:44separation twice so, half of it at
33:46Ravensthorpe and half of it at Heaton
33:48Lodge. Operationally that's
33:50significantly better
33:51uh but, increased cost cuz you're doing
33:53two although they're only single track
33:54grade separations, you're doing them at
33:56two locations. So, it's a higher cost
33:59and it's actually harder from a
34:00maintenance perspective. If you need to
34:01maintain the fast lines but, your slow
34:03lines are operational, you've then got
34:04to cross the slows to get the fast which
34:06is the issues that you've got on the
34:07main Leeds Cross main line. So, um
34:10having pairs of up down up down
34:12arrangement is far easier to block two
34:14and get your maintenance access than it
34:15is to have up up down down arrangement.
34:17So, although operationally that is
34:19better, uh it was more expensive and
34:21it's it's actually harder to maintain.
34:23Um half and half of having the fast on
34:25the outside instead of the inside.
34:27We looked at having the fast lines in
34:29the center all the way through as far as
34:30Huddersfield.
34:32And we looked at doing the opposite
34:33having the slow lines in the center all
34:35the way through to Huddersfield. So,
34:36there were lots and lots of options that
34:38we looked at. We even looked at off off
34:41boundary schemes. So, the yellow line
34:42you can see there is the original
34:44Midland Railway branch line that went
34:46from
34:47Mirfield through to Huddersfield. We
34:49even looked at reinstating part of that
34:50for for the slow lines.
34:53So, instead of trying to squeeze extra
34:55tracks on the existing footprint within
34:56the current land boundary, uh compulsory
34:58purchase back the old track bed and go
35:00via the old Midland route for the slow
35:01lines to get to Huddersfield.
35:06We even looked at massive massive left
35:08field left field big bang schemes. So,
35:11this will make few people smile but,
35:13let's forget the existing railway. Let's
35:15build a HS2 railway all the way from
35:18Ravensthorpe through Huddersfield to
35:20beyond Huddersfield so, almost up to
35:22Slaithwaite.
35:23So, I'll I'll just zoom in slightly on
35:25that. So, the idea of this is instead of
35:28upgrading the entirety of TIU to get on
35:30west of Leeds roughly a 10-minute
35:32journey time
35:33if you could forget the existing railway
35:35and build a much bigger scheme for a
35:37short stretch at much much higher speed,
35:40uh could you get that entire journey
35:41time just with one one off-line scheme
35:43which removes all the disruption of
35:45upgrading the existing railway just
35:47building a new one. So, if we come up at
35:49Ravensthorpe on the right hand side,
35:51follow the hillside uh as far as you
35:53can, couple of viaducts there in blue
35:55and then you disappear into a a very
35:57long tunnel under Kirkheaton
36:00uh back out
36:01uh to a short viaduct on the approach to
36:03to Huddersfield back into another
36:04tunnel, another viaduct over the valley
36:07at Huddersfield with a new
36:09station intersecting the existing
36:11station. So, at the east end of the
36:12existing station at a higher level uh
36:14creating intersecting station there,
36:16carry straight on and miss out all the
36:18horrible uh low speed reverse curves
36:20coming out of Huddersfield and tie in um
36:22in the Mirfield Bridge area.
36:24So, the benefit of that scheme is it not
36:26only gives you a much much higher speed
36:28over that portion of route, it gave us
36:30the sub option of um uh trains that miss
36:33out Huddersfield as a stop. So, through
36:35train so, you've got fast train and
36:37we'll have a super fast train and
36:38non-stop from Leeds to to Manchester.
36:41That did actually get the same journey
36:42time
36:44improvement just doing that scheme as
36:46everything else that we're currently
36:47doing.
36:48The the the problem was the cost.
36:50So, it's actually the topography of that
36:51part of the route. We had some very very
36:53serious deep 100-m deep tunnels and
36:55viaducts on the route. So, it was
36:57feasible but, it was very expensive.
37:00So, we've pretty much looked at
37:01everything we could possibly do, all the
37:03different arrangements on the existing
37:04footprint and we've also looked at minor
37:06schemes off footprint and then the the
37:08big left field let's let's just forget
37:10it and go go HS2 style scheme.
37:15So, moving into grid three
37:16of the 10 schemes that we had
37:17previously, this is where Jim should
37:19start to recognize what we what we what
37:20I'm presenting.
37:22Um so, we actually got the the the track
37:24designer for Huddersfield from Arup's
37:25Arup's in the room which is why I just
37:27mentioned Jim. Sorry Jim for name
37:28dropping you like that. Um
37:30so, moving into grid three, we sifted
37:32the 10 options down to to five options.
37:35Uh so, one and five the top and bottom
37:37ones were the ones that made it to the
37:38final sift. The the middle ones are uh
37:40all um fast lines in the middle or fast
37:42lines on the outside all the way through
37:44different variants.
37:46So, we're going down to option one
37:49which is the version that we've gone
37:50for. I'll come back to that in a moment
37:52of a grade separated junction at um
37:54uh Ravensthorpe or Thornhill Junction at
37:56the right hand side with the fast lines
37:57all the way through on the south until
37:59you get to Huddersfield.
38:02Layout five was uh fast lines to the
38:05north to Heaton Lodge and then the grade
38:06separation there as I mentioned a couple
38:08of minutes ago.
38:10So,
38:11that's the scheme that we are currently
38:12presenting or currently um
38:17progressing.
38:18So, we've got the existing layout at the
38:19top and the um the proposed layout at
38:22the bottom with the red being the fast
38:23lines picking up all the fast services
38:25and the blue the slow lines picking up
38:26your stoppers and all your freight
38:28freight services.
38:29And once you get to Huddersfield, how we
38:30manage trains there, uh I've got some
38:32more slides in a moment.
38:34But, the plan is to keep everything as
38:36separate as possible.
38:39So, why why grade separate
38:41at all the additional grade separation
38:43at Ravensthorpe? So, layout one on the
38:45left hand side, the adopted version
38:48um
38:49and why separate the two junctions? So,
38:52uh the junction names are actually uh
38:54out of date on there. So, Thornhill L&W
38:55Junction is now Ravensthorpe straight
38:57Ravensthorpe and Ravensthorpe Junction
38:59is now called Bay Junction.
39:02I'll explain why it's called Bay
39:03Junction shortly.
39:04Um
39:05So, the reason for separating them is uh
39:08if we have the two junctions a full
39:10train length apart, it allows you to get
39:13a s- uh stopping train so, if you're
39:15coming from from Leeds
39:17uh on the bottom line, the stopping
39:18train can get off the fast line without
39:20needing a forward route set onto the
39:22slow lines. So, it doesn't matter what's
39:23happening on the slow lines at
39:24Ravensthorpe. That stopping train can
39:26still get off the fast lines and release
39:28the fast train behind it. It can
39:30basically uh be held as it's a holding
39:32line or capable of holding the stopping
39:34train to then release that following
39:36fast train as quickly as possible. As
39:38soon as you have an at-grade junction,
39:40uh that becomes far more difficult to
39:41do. Which is a a little bit easy to see
39:43on the next slide uh because the
39:45junction is the opposite way around. So
39:47if you go for the layout one that we've
39:48got of the fast lines on the south, but
39:50you put an upgrade junction, the little
39:52red train there which is a stopper, now
39:55can go on to the
39:56up slow line until the down fast train
39:58has passed. So you've got that
39:59conflicting move that you need to
40:01manage. You don't have that issue with a
40:03grade separation. That train can just be
40:04flighted and can get out of the way
40:05quickly. So it's really important from a
40:08not only from a
40:09timetable planning, but from a
40:10performance perspective. If that stopper
40:12is running slightly late, it can get out
40:13of the out of the way quicker.
40:18So, four tracks up to Huddersfield, what
40:20do we do at Huddersfield?
40:23So that's the existing layout of
40:24Huddersfield. You've got two lines
40:25approaching from the Leeds end.
40:28We've got the
40:29platform, what's currently platform one
40:31which is the up through line,
40:33platform eight which is the down through
40:35line at the top, and a center center
40:37through line which is bi-directional but
40:39generally used for turning back your
40:40Manchester to Huddersfield stopper and
40:42your Leeds to Huddersfield stopper. And
40:44then you've got two very short bays as
40:46well. One is two carriages long and one
40:47is one carriage long. Just almost
40:49useless.
40:50So there's various constraints at
40:51Huddersfield. It is a grade one listed
40:53structure.
40:55Which obviously includes the the the
40:56facade at the front of the station, but
40:58it also includes various elements within
40:59the station. So the
41:01the subway is part of the listing.
41:04There are two of the original station
41:06columns. And by original, I don't mean
41:07the current roof that we've got. I mean
41:08the the the 1830s roof.
41:12So the what roof we currently got is
41:141880s, I think. Something of those that
41:17that ilk.
41:18But those are the original original roof
41:19columns.
41:21We've got the tea rooms. So wooden tea
41:23room on island platform. Well, tea rooms
41:24in themselves aren't particularly
41:26significant, but apparently that's the
41:27only one in existence in the country
41:29that's located on an island platform. A
41:31little bit tenuous, but a wooden tea
41:33room on an island platform is now unique
41:35in the country. So that's actually quite
41:37an important part of the listing as
41:38well.
41:39Elements that are listed but not part of
41:41the station, so the goods goods
41:43warehouse adjacent and the goods wagon
41:45lift on the side are listed. Grade two
41:48listed but separate listing.
41:50And then there was a tongue-in-cheek
41:51element that for a while all the
41:53redundant class 1142s were were stable
41:56there. So somebody had a joke that
41:57somebody would try and list those as
41:58well.
42:01So developing layouts for Huddersfield,
42:03we've got four tracks coming in. So the
42:05first option is just retain what we've
42:06already got. Let's keep the the bays in
42:08the middle, try and make them a little
42:09bit longer,
42:10and keep the the platform arrangement
42:12kind of as it is. However, this
42:13instance, we've got the up and down main
42:15through the bottom two through
42:16platforms, and all the stopping services
42:19in both directions using one line
42:21through through all the through stopping
42:22services using one line at the north of
42:24the station. Operationally very
42:26restrictive and that that wasn't
42:28continued.
42:31So same again but add a through
42:34platform. So we've now got two fast
42:36through fast platforms on the south, two
42:38through slow platforms on the north,
42:40and two bays in the center of the
42:42station.
42:43And that's trying to keep the the
42:46rooms up to to to make room for
42:47lengthening the platforms.
42:49The one pro main problem with that is
42:51the size of the second train shed, the
42:53smaller train shed at Huddersfield. So
42:55that's a photograph from the early 1980s
42:57before they demolished
42:59the eastern half of the train shed. It
43:02did actually extend over the bay
43:03platform. So the columns supporting the
43:05small train shed are roughly 2 m from
43:07the platform edge. So way below the
43:09minimum of two and a half, and nowhere
43:11near the 3.3 m we need to get a ramp in
43:14there to to remove
43:15mobility impaired persons from from the
43:18train. So extending
43:20removing the tea room and extending the
43:22bays in there would have been
43:23very difficult from a consent from a
43:25from a
43:26compliance perspective because of
43:28because of those columns. And also the
43:30roof the the shed roof is significantly
43:32lower, so it would also be a bit of a
43:34challenge to get your your wires
43:35underneath there as well.
43:37So that option was discounted. So the
43:40two versions they are similar to what we
43:42what we've adopted, but basically two
43:44four through platforms with a a single
43:46west facing bay on the north end. I've
43:48I've ignored Penistone platform for the
43:50time being. I'll come back to that in a
43:51moment. But in essence, four through
43:54platforms and a bay to the north. So
43:56this version is to have two fast
43:59platforms to the south. So up down fast
44:02at the south, and up down slow at the
44:03north. Similar version where you've got
44:05the up fast and up slow at the bottom,
44:07and the up fast and up slow at the top.
44:09So just a different way of arranging it.
44:12And that's the layout that we we ended
44:14up with.
44:16I'll talk about why there's so much S&C
44:19in a moment because there was quite
44:20quite a lot of effort we had to put into
44:22justify
44:23providing that and keeping it.
44:26But that's the layout we've got. So
44:27there's various various elements of the
44:30layout that are quite important. So the
44:32ladder from the top right that runs all
44:33the way across,
44:35point of that is to try and get
44:37get that in at 40 mph. So that was one
44:39of the main objectives. We ended up
44:41trying to turn the dies all the west end
44:43S&C at 40. But that ladder specifically
44:45to try and get freight trains through
44:47the station. So up freight trains
44:49towards Manchester through the stations
44:50as quickly as we can.
44:52So the only one line that high speed
44:53through the station is platform two.
44:55Currently platform one, we'll renumber
44:57them so that they're in geographical
44:58order.
44:59Um
45:00So platform two is the only high speed
45:03line through the station in the up
45:04direction. So we want to be able to get
45:06the trains across the layout, freight
45:07trains across the layout, through
45:09platform two at 40 mph, and hit the
45:11bottom of the bank up to Standedge at
45:13the highest possible speed. Because at 1
45:15in 105 grade, and whatever speed those
45:17trains hit the bottom of the hill, they
45:18tend to be still doing at the top of the
45:20hill. They can't accelerate because of
45:22the weight of the train on on that
45:23grade. So it's important we try and get
45:25that train through the station quickly.
45:28Hence that ladder.
45:29There's one high speed
45:31crossover in the layout. So coming out
45:33of platform four going from left to
45:34right. That's a 60 mph crossover. That
45:38is
45:39basically on a 1 in 100 falling
45:41gradient. An electric train can
45:42accelerate to 60 mph very quickly. It
45:45can accelerate to 40 in pretty much
45:46their own length.
45:47So that one crossover in the middle of
45:49the layout is to allow a fast train, a
45:51down down Leeds
45:53fast train to come out platform four and
45:55have unrestricted acceleration coming
45:57out of the station. It's basically can
45:58floor it and just keep going until he's
46:00got up to the full line speed of 100
46:02mph.
46:05And that's the layout of the station
46:07that we ended up with. So
46:09I mentioned the Penistone line. So we've
46:11got Penistone platform, four car
46:12platform bottom left.
46:14Looks to be longer than that.
46:16That image.
46:17And then all the remainder of the
46:18platforms are all all eight car
46:20platforms. Eight times 24 m was the
46:23remit. It's a generic DFT remit. The
46:26trains that will actually be using them
46:28are six times 24 for stopping services,
46:31and for what currently five but in the
46:33future seven car 802s which is seven
46:35times 26 m. So you've got seven times 26
46:38m train using a eight times 24 m long
46:41platform. I mean 200 m platform.
46:44Once you add the allowances.
46:46So we ended with four through platforms
46:48and one bay platform, all 200 m in
46:50length.
46:52And you'll see on there that those
46:53platforms are not straight, which has in
46:56itself caused us some problems. So
46:59the layout was actually particularly the
47:00west end of the station was difficult to
47:02design. So the original north tunnel,
47:05Huddersfield north tunnel, the geometry
47:07of that, you come out of the tunnel
47:08feeds into the lowest of the platforms
47:10at Huddersfield.
47:12So we've got the the So when they
47:14increased the size of the station and
47:15four tracked it in the station, they
47:17went to the north and the tunnels they
47:18built the south tunnel. So we went to
47:20the south at one end and the north
47:21through the middle of the station. Which
47:23creates a horrible dog leg through the
47:24middle of the station to try try and fit
47:26through.
47:27So our constraint, you see that's the
47:29proposed that's our current layout. So
47:31we've got constraints of the tunnel and
47:33the geometries
47:35at the western end.
47:37We've got the station and the listed tea
47:39room in the middle. We've got the
47:40viaduct pinch pulling it down at the
47:42eastern end. And then we've got listed
47:44goods shed at the top. So there's
47:46various constraints in there that we had
47:47to try and fit fit this layout through.
47:50Now, we've had quite a lot of challenge
47:51from from the talks about installing
47:53curved platforms, and I'll talk about
47:55the problems with dispatch in a moment.
47:57But just to demonstrate what would have
47:59been needed if if the talks had have got
48:00their own way of having straight
48:01platforms 200 m length, we'd have to
48:03rebuild Huddersfield tunnel, wipe out
48:05several listed structures, and and widen
48:07the the viaduct at the other end. So
48:11that's just demonstrate the quantum of
48:12extra work that would be required to get
48:14the fully desirable
48:15platform, straight platforms.
48:19So from a dispatch perspective,
48:21not necessarily about compliance or
48:23compliant platform,
48:25radius on the platform is 1,000 m.
48:28Um
48:29RSSB generally not that fussed till you
48:31go below 500.
48:33As long as you've got good reason to
48:34curve a platform, they will they will
48:36generally accept that.
48:37Um
48:38but you really need to consider the
48:40dispatch of a train. So the black the
48:42lines that are on there, the black lines
48:43that are on there, are lines of sight
48:45from the very end of the platform. So if
48:46you've got a 200 m long platform
48:49on a 1,000 m radius
48:52with a compliant 3.3 m wide platform,
48:55you cannot
48:57undertake guard dispatch of that train
48:59because that that guard would have to be
49:01stood 5 and a half meters from the
49:02platform edge to be able to see the full
49:04length of the train.
49:05So even if you have a compliant radius,
49:07you still can't dispatch a train.
49:09So the 800 m is the version we've got in
49:12Huddersfield station,
49:15which has its own issues.
49:17But to to make a platform capable of
49:20being dispatched or a guard being able
49:21to see the full length of the train, it
49:22would need to be 2,000 m off ladder for
49:24that to work for an eight car train.
49:28So we have had to as I mentioned
49:29dispatch issues at Huddersfield. So some
49:31visualizations of platform five where
49:33the platform is on the outside of the
49:34curve. If you're stood on the platform,
49:36that the guard in the middle of the
49:37train cannot see the full length of the
49:39train. So, that's looking towards Leeds.
49:41That's looking towards Manchester.
49:43So, we've created some um line of sight
49:46plots. So, a uh seven-car Class 802
49:50uh with different versions of the train
49:51in different positions on the platforms.
49:54Uh but we've got two lines for each of
49:55the from from each end of the train. One
49:57is the obscuration from the train
49:59itself, and one is the obscuration from
50:02platform furniture.
50:04So, platforms four uh uh six at the top
50:07and and four uh three down there. Where
50:10the platform's on the inside of the
50:11curve, that hatched area is where the
50:13guard needs to stand he can see the full
50:14length of the train from that location.
50:16So, it's relatively easy, subject to how
50:18overcrowded the platform is, uh to be
50:20able to dispatch a train where where the
50:22platform is on the inside of the curve.
50:24Where it's on the outside of the curve
50:25is a real problem.
50:27Uh as you can see there, that hatched
50:29area, if we zoom in on that that area,
50:31is very small. And with all the the
50:33furniture that we've got within the
50:34station and the waiting shelters that we
50:35do need to provide, there isn't actually
50:37a place where the guard can stand and
50:39see the length of the train.
50:40So, we are forced at Huddersfield into
50:43having assisted dispatch or station
50:45staff like you got at York, station
50:46staff assisting the dispatch of a train.
50:48Um which has its own implications. It's
50:51mainly the OPEX cost of having So, one
50:53dispatch staff requires three members of
50:55staff. So, Huddersfield now requires
50:57three additional members of staff to
50:58assist in dispatch dispatch of trains.
51:03Similar issue at Morley. I mentioned
51:04Morley being curved earlier on. So, a
51:06sim- similar um line of uh line of sight
51:09plot, but this one's in 3D.
51:11Uh so, if I zoom in there, um
51:14this this area here is the area where
51:15you can see the full length of the
51:16train. So, we deliberately made the
51:18platform at uh Morley 5.5 m wide to a
51:22dispatch. And then we filled the
51:23platform up with furniture, so you then
51:25couldn't see the length of the train
51:26again. So, in this instance, the the
51:28CCTV mast takes up reason- it's still
51:31small, but reasonable sized area to this
51:33tiny little sliver in here. So, with the
51:35CCTV mast being placed where it was, we
51:37could no longer dispatch a train at
51:39Morley, which is an unstaffed station,
51:40so that wasn't going to work. So, it was
51:41a very late alteration to get that CCTV
51:44mast moved out of the way, so we were
51:46actually capable of dispatching a train.
51:49Reality now, interestingly, looks really
51:50bad on the 3D model in when you stand
51:52there on site, it doesn't actually look
51:54as bad in in reality than in in the
51:56theoretical version. Uh but it was still
51:59an issue, and if we'd have left that
52:00mast there, then then we we would have
52:01had issues. Uh we've also got OLE masts
52:04that are not in yet on site, but um they
52:06they will also uh cau- cause a cause a
52:09constraint.
52:10So, the green line at the back is if you
52:11had your unconstrained version in the
52:13middle of the platform uh where that
52:15line of sight would have been.
52:21I think.
52:27So, performance.
52:29So, we need more reliable trains.
52:31So, performance generically means more
52:33flexibility from operational
52:35perspective. It's not only how do you
52:36manage perturbation, but how do you
52:38manage a perturbation, but how do you
52:40manage a train running 5 minutes late?
52:42How do you manage the conflicts between
52:44different operational moves?
52:48So, we'd love a flexible layout, so we'd
52:50love to put back in what used to be at
52:51Huddersfield. So, let's put uh double
52:53junctions in everywhere and double
52:55slips, and we can go anywhere from
52:56anywhere, and everyone's happy. But
52:58obviously, we're not we're not going to
52:59be doing that. So,
53:02um
53:05What alterations do we need to make to
53:06layout? So, that's the diagram I had up
53:08a few minutes ago of the the the layout
53:10that we ended up with following
53:12development.
53:13Now, as soon as Network Rail got route
53:15and ti- uh signals got to look at the
53:17layout, they had very different
53:18opinions. So, that's the version that
53:20works for a timetable, but it doesn't
53:22help run trains on the perturbation. So,
53:24if you've lost your slow lines for some
53:26reason, and all your trains your your
53:28terminate trains that need to terminate
53:29at Huddersfield from Leeds have to come
53:31on the fast lines, you can only get into
53:33platforms two and three from fast lines.
53:36So, from a perturbation perspective,
53:37that doesn't really work. So,
53:40we actually need two extra crossovers,
53:42which now allows us to get from the up
53:44fast all the way across into platform
53:45five. We can't get into all platforms,
53:47but we can at least get across to
53:48platform five.
53:50So, we needed two extra crossovers.
53:52Now, um given that we're we we had the
53:54layout fairly well locked down at that
53:55point, that was quite fairly painful
53:57discussion to add two crossovers and add
54:00the cost associated with that. So, we we
54:02made the decision at the time to add one
54:03crossover and move a different one.
54:06In moving that crossover, we lost a
54:08parallel move, which at the time we
54:10didn't think was particularly
54:11significant, but as I'll come back to
54:12shortly, uh turns out it is fairly
54:14significant. So, uh that's the one
54:16regret on the development of the layout
54:18for Huddersfield is not moving that
54:21crossover instead of adding a crossover.
54:27So, the layout that we've got for
54:29Huddersfield, this is this is the actual
54:30version that's designed now, single line
54:32diagram version, what we're we are
54:33currently building.
54:35Uh so, what have we got there? So, we
54:37still got the the ladder running across,
54:38so 35 points all the way through to 28
54:41points there.
54:42Uh ladder to get the freight trains
54:43through platform two.
54:46Um
54:48Up right there, 36 points leads into um
54:51stable facility, so we've got side talk
54:54sidings. So, we've got four
54:56uh 100 well, 350 m and one 200 m long
54:59side siding for Northern to stable there
55:02out-of-service trains. Those are they
55:04are currently sidings at the north side
55:06of the station, which are taken up by
55:07the new platforms. So, we needed to
55:09provide an alternate facility. That is
55:11at Hillhouse on the right-hand side of
55:12the screen. And the benefit is that that
55:14facility actually faces the station, so
55:15it's a single empty stock move from the
55:17station to the sidings instead of out
55:19onto the running lines, reversing, and
55:21going back into the sidings as they do
55:22today. So, stabling at the uh right-hand
55:25side, fast lines to the north, fast li-
55:28sorry, slow lines to the north, fast
55:29lines to the south.
55:31Got flexibility through the middle of
55:32the station.
55:33So, the the diagram I showed you earlier
55:35with having an up uh up down up down
55:38arrangement or up up down down
55:39arrangement, this is actually the merger
55:41of the two. The reason we've got the
55:42extra S&C and the diamond in the middle
55:44is that we can actually run on the
55:45bottom two tracks, the top two tracks,
55:47the outside two tracks, which I'll which
55:49I'll show you in a moment.
55:51Um
55:54It'd be lovely to have extra tracks at
55:56the west end of Huddersfield.
55:58Uh I mentioned I said earlier I'd I'd
56:00ignored talking about the Penistone
56:01line, so you've got the Penistone line
56:02coming in uh from Sheffield um
56:06through Barnsley uh Penistone and
56:09through into platform one. We did have
56:11schemes that that that put an extra
56:13appliance, or the up fast shared to the
56:16Penistone line, and we squeezed an extra
56:17track through there. To do with that
56:19though,
56:20uh I'd remove the the version at the
56:22moment where the Penistone line is in
56:23essence a completely independent railway
56:26into an independent platform.
56:28The Penistone line's
56:29timetable is completely divorced from
56:31TIU. If we merge those and run the up
56:34fast on the Penistone line briefly,
56:36you've now linked the Huddersfield
56:38timetable with the Sheffield timetable.
56:40The Sheffield timetable already doesn't
56:41work, so then linking it with
56:43Huddersfield as well will make
56:44everything fall over. So, it's a very
56:46deliberate choice to retain the existing
56:48scenario of keeping the Penistone line
56:50completely independent on a day-to-day
56:52operation. Obviously, 16 points is for
56:54empty stock moves to get get in and off,
56:56and engineers trains to get in on and
56:57off the branch. Um deliberate choice to
57:00to keep those separate. So, how else
57:03could we get an extra track through
57:04through uh through the tunnels? Well,
57:06set track through the north bore was
57:08originally two tracks. Um I mentioned
57:10earlier that um Standly Bridge and Scout
57:14tunnels were small. Huddersfield north
57:15bore is even smaller. It's absolutely
57:17minuscule. In fact, it looks like a
57:19single bore tunnel, so they ever had two
57:21tracks through it. Uh it's in the order
57:23of a meter track lower, 1 m track lower
57:25to be able to put the second track
57:26through there. Um
57:27which is actually easy to bore a new
57:29tunnel, I think, than than than to start
57:30doing that. So, um
57:33unlikely to ever get built, but the spur
57:36on 21B there coming to platform five,
57:38that's for two reasons that that's
57:39there. One is passive provision that
57:41that can actually run if you ever bore
57:42in another single bore tunnel to the
57:44north, you can actually connect it in.
57:46Uh and the other one is when a train
57:47coming into platform five
57:50uh has a proper overrun, so it's it's uh
57:52overrun beyond the signal doesn't
57:54actually go onto
57:55head-on conflicting move with the down
57:57train entering the station. So, the uh
57:59to have that little spur up to above the
58:01stop allows a signal overrun to to to to
58:04go straight on instead of into into the
58:06path of an oncoming train.
58:10So,
58:11um
58:13Small things make make differences.
58:15Nam- naming of lines. So, to the west of
58:19east of the station, you've got the up
58:20down fast, up down Huddersfield fast on
58:23the south, and the up and down
58:24Huddersfield slow on the north. And it's
58:25just the up and down Huddersfield where
58:27you go down to the two-track section.
58:29Because of how they were named to the
58:30east of the station, originally, the
58:32platforms were numbered as the up and
58:34down Huddersfield fast and up and down
58:36Huddersfield slow. However, platform
58:38four, which was labeled the up slow, was
58:41intended to be used by the down fast
58:43services.
58:44So, although it seems nothing, as soon
58:46as the timetables got hold of that, they
58:47see the names and assume that the trains
58:49have to go through those tracks. So,
58:51they then turn around and say, "We can't
58:52get this timetable to work." This is,
58:54"Of course you can. We've got loads of
58:55flexibility in the layout." "No, it no,
58:56it doesn't work." And it's because
58:58they've taken the track labels as a as
58:59the down fast having to have the down
59:01fast train running through it. Um so,
59:03there's another battle. It's amazing how
59:05difficult it is to get simple things
59:06changed. But we've now got the up and
59:07down fasts and slows to the west of the
59:09station, we've got platform two line,
59:11platform three line, four line, five
59:13line through the station, and then goes
59:14through and out of Huddersfield uh
59:16purely to to stop that confusion in the
59:18future.
59:20So, what we've got on screen, uh green
59:22uh fast services, blue uh
59:24stopping services. So, how do we map
59:26different versions of how we use
59:28Huddersfield station?
59:30So, um down fast train uh running
59:33through platform four back over 30
59:34points back onto the onto the down fast
59:37line. So, 30 points is the fast turnout
59:39that I mentioned earlier for the
59:40unrestricted acceleration of the train
59:42out of the station. Up fast trains
59:44running through platform two with the
59:46Manchester stopper turning having a
59:48center turn back in platform three and
59:50everything coming from the west all
59:51filtering across into platforms five and
59:53six. So, that's assuming we've got
59:55what's called a split stopper
59:56arrangement where the Manchester
59:58Huddersfield stopper is different from
1:00:00the Huddersfield to Leeds stopper. There
1:00:02was a version where that is a through
1:00:03stopping service that runs all the way
1:00:05from Manchester through to Leeds or
1:00:07Manchester through to York.
1:00:09In that scenario,
1:00:11platform three now is used for all up
1:00:14stopping services and platform five for
1:00:16all down stopping services and then
1:00:18platform six for the Bradford train
1:00:19which always always terminates at
1:00:21Huddersfield. So, you've got that
1:00:22flexibility. Now, in running that
1:00:25through service,
1:00:26at 33 points here, you've got your up
1:00:29slow crossing your down fast services.
1:00:32So, you've got an operational conflict
1:00:34in the throat of the station.
1:00:37Now, it's deemed better to manage it at
1:00:40that end of the station because the fast
1:00:41train's going to take priority. If you
1:00:43have to stop a terminating stopping
1:00:44services outside the station and hold it
1:00:47for for a few minutes before you let it
1:00:48in, it's not as big a deal as as the
1:00:50impact of stopping a fast train that
1:00:52then runs up to Edinburgh because
1:00:53they're not going to affect
1:00:55delays around the country as high for
1:00:56that. However, the flexibility I
1:00:59mentioned in the layout at the west end
1:01:01means that if that stopping train is due
1:01:03to get into the station before the down
1:01:05fast leaves and that stopping train is
1:01:07running late, you've now got that
1:01:08conflict of both want to cross the
1:01:09junction at the same time. The signalers
1:01:11should know that within sufficient
1:01:14advanced warning. So, because of the
1:01:16flexibility in layout, you actually got
1:01:18the option to swap those around at the
1:01:19last minute. You swap the two trains on
1:01:21the opposite face of the same platform.
1:01:23So, you haven't got any passenger
1:01:24management issues. They just go into the
1:01:25opposite face of the same platform. You
1:01:27now move that conflict from the east end
1:01:29of the station to the west end of the
1:01:30station. So, you've got the
1:01:32the immediate flexibility in the day to
1:01:34manage slightly out of sequence trains
1:01:37and order that
1:01:38that relocate that conflicting
1:01:41operational conflict.
1:01:44Freight trains mentioned earlier. So,
1:01:46solid blue lines is the intended
1:01:48route for freight and then the dotted
1:01:50line is the alternative route. So, I
1:01:51mentioned coming across the ladder 33 28
1:01:54points through platform two. Can go
1:01:55through platform three, but the where
1:01:57the west end of platform three is 25
1:01:59mph. So, you'll have that hit on on uh
1:02:03uh train speed which will then compound
1:02:05itself going up the hill because it will
1:02:07pretty much stay at that speed.
1:02:11So, that's day-to-day intended use. What
1:02:13do you do under perturbation? So, you've
1:02:15got unplanned failures. So, what happens
1:02:16if you lose your slow lines? Where do
1:02:18you run all your fast and slow services?
1:02:20I'm not going to go in these as much
1:02:21detail, but we looked at how how you
1:02:23cope with the fast slow lines are
1:02:24closed. If the fast lines are closed,
1:02:26where do you send your services?
1:02:28Um on a night time plan closure, slow
1:02:31lines are closed, you can run it as a
1:02:32two track railway. Fast lines are
1:02:33closed, you can use in slows as a two
1:02:35track railway. So, you've got all that
1:02:36flexibility there. If you lost
1:02:38everything at the Leeds end and you have
1:02:40to terminate all Manchester trains, I
1:02:43predominantly use platforms three and
1:02:44four, but you can come into five, run up
1:02:46to Hillhouse siding and come back into
1:02:48platform two and head back towards
1:02:49Manchester. So, lots of flexibility
1:02:51there. And then again, if you lose the
1:02:52Manchester trains, how do you manage all
1:02:54your fast and stops and send stoppers
1:02:55and send them back the other way?
1:02:57So, all the different scenarios, the
1:02:59layout has a lot of flexibility within
1:03:01it
1:03:03um
1:03:05to manage perturbation. So,
1:03:08mentioned flexibility. So, performance
1:03:10is all about flexibility. You need to be
1:03:12able to do different moves at the same
1:03:14time. And again, this is quite
1:03:15complicated, so I'm not I'm not going to
1:03:16dwell on I'll just pick up on a couple
1:03:18of ones. So, again, green in this
1:03:19instance green is a down service, so
1:03:21towards Leeds and red is a Manchester
1:03:24bound service. So, all the solid lines
1:03:28are moves that can happen at the same
1:03:30time. So, you can have an up train in
1:03:31red through platform two running all the
1:03:33way through the same time as a down
1:03:35train enters platform five at the same
1:03:37time as another down train can leave
1:03:39platform six. Lots of different versions
1:03:43trains can
1:03:44leave either five or six at the same
1:03:46time as coming into four
1:03:48and so on and so forth. There's lots of
1:03:49different options there. So, you can
1:03:51pretty much do nearly every parallel
1:03:53move that you would want to do with one
1:03:55exception because of the 22 points being
1:03:58so close to the station, you cannot
1:04:00leave platform two at the same time as
1:04:01an up train is is entering platform
1:04:03sorry, cannot leave platform three at
1:04:05the same time as a an up train is
1:04:06entering platform two. You have to wait
1:04:08for that train to have stopped and be
1:04:10timed out in platform two before three
1:04:11can be released. So, that's the only
1:04:13thing really that the layout doesn't do.
1:04:15Otherwise, you've got the flexibility in
1:04:16the overlaps at the end of the station
1:04:18to manage pretty much anything to happen
1:04:20at the same time.
1:04:23So, I mentioned the missed opportunity
1:04:25of the crossover. So, um removing the
1:04:28crossover the facing crossover just at
1:04:31the right end of platforms two and three
1:04:33means that if you've got a down train
1:04:35the green line leaving platform four the
1:04:38same time as train is either in or
1:04:40leaving platform two,
1:04:42you cannot get into three at the same
1:04:44time because of the the down train going
1:04:46in the opposite direction. So, you can't
1:04:47use 34 points because of the there's a a
1:04:50down fast train going over it. So,
1:04:51that's where the the relocated crossover
1:04:55was was was probably a bit of an error
1:04:58in losing that. Um there's a very good
1:05:01chance that we will now have to do a
1:05:02subsequent stage to
1:05:05add that crossover back in. So, we've
1:05:07got a nice lovely layout with all the
1:05:09S&C wonderfully separated 20 m
1:05:10separation between all the S&C units all
1:05:13at a consistent 30 or 40 mph and then
1:05:16we're going to have to squeeze in this
1:05:17horrible little 25 mph crossover on a
1:05:19curve at the entrance of the platform to
1:05:22get back the the the parallel moves that
1:05:24we probably should have resisted losing
1:05:26a lot lot harder than we did.
1:05:31So, how we staging TIU? So, September of
1:05:35next year is the first major blockade at
1:05:37Huddersfield. Huddersfield gets closed
1:05:38for one month. During that month, we
1:05:40complete the slow lines. So, everything
1:05:42in black there will be complete at the
1:05:45end of the blockade or should be
1:05:46complete at the end of the blockade in
1:05:47September next year.
1:05:49So, that includes a temporary platform
1:05:51at
1:05:51Hillhouse on the right hand side which
1:05:55is intended to manage stopping services.
1:05:58So, the station itself is is reduced to
1:06:00a two platform through station. So, that
1:06:02can pick up all your your fast trains as
1:06:03they do today, but there's no way to
1:06:05terminate a stopping service because we
1:06:07take out of action all the north end of
1:06:08the station and over the course of the
1:06:10year completely reconstruct it. So, we
1:06:12build the slow lines
1:06:14as far as 32 points with a temporary
1:06:16alignment to get across into platforms
1:06:17two and three and operate Huddersfield
1:06:20as a two platform station with stopping
1:06:22services intended to use the
1:06:24Huddersfield Hillhouse platform.
1:06:27There's a good chance now that
1:06:29the TOCs don't want the hassle of having
1:06:31to get passengers from Hillhouse to the
1:06:33main station. We're probably just going
1:06:35to divert all trains via the Calder
1:06:37Valley and we'll just bus people the
1:06:38extra two miles that it takes to get
1:06:40from Brick House. So, you'll basically
1:06:42you want to go to Huddersfield, you get
1:06:43off at Brick House and get a bus bus to
1:06:45Huddersfield. So, although we've
1:06:47designed in the capability to that
1:06:49platform, it's probably not going to get
1:06:51built because of the the way that they
1:06:52want to operate the diverted services.
1:06:54So, that happens September next year.
1:06:57You've got a year for the station to be
1:07:00rebuilt. I think it's September the
1:07:02following year, James. Is that correct?
1:07:04It's roughly a year later. Might be
1:07:05Christmas, so might be slightly over a
1:07:07year where the rest of the station gets
1:07:09commissioned. So, we've now got all the
1:07:11platforms, all the west end layout. So,
1:07:13this is the second one month blockade.
1:07:15So, we've got the final station, but
1:07:16without the fast lines commissioned. So,
1:07:19we've got all the platforms, but we're
1:07:20only feeding in now. The layout isn't
1:07:21designed to have parallel moves with
1:07:23every everything coming in constantly
1:07:25off two platforms. It does work, but
1:07:27it's it's more constrained than you've
1:07:28got on the end end state layout.
1:07:30I've hidden all the slides associated
1:07:31with that cuz I thought you'd be getting
1:07:32bored by now.
1:07:35So, that's it for Huddersfield station.
1:07:37We've uh
1:07:39Hopefully, that demonstrates the volume
1:07:40of effort that we're actually putting
1:07:42into coming up with the layout that
1:07:43we've got.
1:07:44Um it's
1:07:46at least six years worth of work to get
1:07:48to the point we're at now. Um so,
1:07:51nothing happens quickly on the railway,
1:07:52but that's been constant work for those
1:07:54six years. Two week two year chunk of
1:07:56that was all Transport Works Act order
1:07:59in the middle which we got roughly a
1:08:01year ago. So, we've got the Transport
1:08:02Works Act order signed off. So,
1:08:04they're they're starting in earnest on
1:08:05site now which I'll show you a a few
1:08:07progress photographs at the end of the
1:08:09presentation.
1:08:10But, some of the other development items
1:08:13stations. So, Deighton station which is
1:08:15location beyond there, um
1:08:17we were having to re completely rebuild
1:08:19the station because the the current
1:08:21tracks in the station in the middle of
1:08:23the four track formation. So, to get
1:08:24four tracks through there, we need to
1:08:25shuffle everything around. So, we looked
1:08:27at numerous different alternatives for
1:08:29the station. Deighton was a 1980s
1:08:33local authority built platform
1:08:35um
1:08:37that replaced the original Bradley
1:08:39station which was at location H on
1:08:41there. So,
1:08:42and Deighton is one of the lowest used
1:08:45stations usage stations in West
1:08:47Yorkshire. So, we thought, well, okay,
1:08:49we have to rebuild Deighton station. Is
1:08:51Deighton station the right place to to
1:08:52actually have the station? So, there's
1:08:54quite an exhaustive option selection
1:08:56process that looked at numerous
1:08:57different locations.
1:08:59We actually ended up back with
1:09:01rebuilding station where it is now, but
1:09:02we did go through quite an exhaustive
1:09:04process to to determine the best place
1:09:06for that.
1:09:08And that's what our station looks like.
1:09:09So,
1:09:11at the moment the tracks are roughly
1:09:13where the right hand lift shaft is
1:09:14through the middle, two platforms and
1:09:17one ramp long ramp coming down from the
1:09:19the over bridge to to each of the
1:09:20platforms. So, we rebuild the bridge,
1:09:22the
1:09:23retaining wall on the left hand side
1:09:25gets cut back at least two or three
1:09:26meters to make room for for slotting the
1:09:29platforming in the middle where you
1:09:30never had a platform originally
1:09:32and with access only from the south side
1:09:35of the railway instead of one one either
1:09:37side of the bridge.
1:09:41When we get to Heaton Lodge, the fast
1:09:42lines on the south all the way through
1:09:45the curve at Heaton Lodge is relatively
1:09:47tight radius 70 was currently 70 miles
1:09:49an hour to push it to its limits you get
1:09:50about 80 miles an hour.
1:09:53If you got the corner off we can get up
1:09:54to 100 miles an hour.
1:09:56So given that we've got capability of
1:09:57110 between Ravensthorpe and Heaton
1:09:59Lodge to the right hand side, 100
1:10:01through here. It was actually chosen to
1:10:04match through Deighton.
1:10:06So Deighton is very tight reverse curves
1:10:08through Deighton the maximum you can
1:10:09ever get through Deighton is 100 miles
1:10:11an hour so there's not a lot point going
1:10:12more much more than 100 here. So we did
1:10:14a 100 curve we did look at 110 115
1:10:17options but this was the optimum from a
1:10:19from a
1:10:20earthworks perspective and impact on
1:10:22structures particularly the river bridge
1:10:24on the south end where we if we go any
1:10:26flatter with the radius we start we end
1:10:28up triggering the rebuilding of
1:10:30another bridge.
1:10:32Um
1:10:34Interestingly this is one of our
1:10:35cheapest interventions for line speed
1:10:39benefit on the route so
1:10:41um
1:10:44From the business case perspective the
1:10:45value of a second on west of Leeds
1:10:48is roughly two million pounds per
1:10:51second.
1:10:53Okay.
1:10:54As a rule of thumb it's between one and
1:10:55two. If any intervention comes in at
1:10:57less than one million pounds per every
1:10:59second that that that that scheme
1:11:02generates then it's an absolute
1:11:04no-brainer you select that option. If
1:11:06it's worse than three it's a no-brainer
1:11:08you don't build it it's never going to
1:11:09have a business case. If it's in between
1:11:10it's subjective and that's where you
1:11:12have to put more effort into the option
1:11:13selection process to prove it.
1:11:15This out of all the schemes on the route
1:11:16worked out at the time about 300,000
1:11:18pounds per second.
1:11:21It was an off-line earthworks scheme
1:11:22there wasn't a lot of railway systems
1:11:24associated with it. Um so it was it was
1:11:27actually one of the cheaper ones. We've
1:11:28tried numerous times to say well let's
1:11:30just stick on the boundary and keep it
1:11:31at 80 miles an hour but those seconds
1:11:33are
1:11:34quite cheap seconds so looks like a big
1:11:36scheme but it's actually one of the
1:11:37better better schemes on TIU.
1:11:41Mirfield station so we're actually
1:11:45looking south here so the fast lines are
1:11:47on the far side on the right hand side.
1:11:50So Mirfield is currently a three
1:11:52platform station
1:11:54platform one on the left then two and
1:11:55then three on the far side. Two isn't
1:11:57actually used at the uh
1:11:59previously.
1:12:00Um so what we're doing is getting rid of
1:12:02the
1:12:03down the up loop get rid of the platform
1:12:06everything goes on the up down slow so
1:12:08we it's currently a three platform
1:12:09station which becomes a two platform
1:12:10station cuz all the stopping trains are
1:12:12on the slow lines.
1:12:16Ravensthorpe grade separated junction um
1:12:20so we're actually going entirely off
1:12:21track so called the bridges we ignore
1:12:23the existing embankment we actually
1:12:25overshoot the curve with the fast lines
1:12:27get 110 miles an hour the slow lines
1:12:29coming either side that follow it type
1:12:31four tracks over the called the
1:12:33navigation and the river Calder tie down
1:12:35back down to two tracks at Deighton
1:12:37junction
1:12:38then we straighten out the reverse curve
1:12:40at
1:12:41Thornhill Road where there's a double
1:12:43reverse in there so we cut cut that
1:12:44corner off and then up to Dewsbury
1:12:46station after Dewsbury it drops down to
1:12:4890 then to 75 miles an hour as you go
1:12:51back into the the existing geometry but
1:12:53we've got a big chunk of 110 100 and 110
1:12:55mile an hour between Huddersfield and
1:12:58Dewsbury.
1:13:02Mentioned Deighton junction
1:13:04unusual unusual name to have various
1:13:07people don't know where that name comes
1:13:09from. So originally it was proposed as
1:13:11Westtown junction. So Westtown is is the
1:13:14the area within within Dewsbury but
1:13:17equally nobody knew where where Westtown
1:13:19was either so that
1:13:20ops tend to like a location name
1:13:23something location specific for a
1:13:24junction
1:13:26but Westtown was fairly generic in that
1:13:27nobody on the railways knows where
1:13:28Westtown is anyway. So it was decided to
1:13:32call it Deighton junction and the
1:13:33viaduct over the river is also going to
1:13:35be called Deighton viaduct. That was
1:13:37actually in recognition of
1:13:39Stuart Baker. So
1:13:42most of you probably haven't heard of
1:13:43Stuart Baker but Stuart Baker was a
1:13:45civil servant former railway man
1:13:48area operations manager on the London
1:13:50Northwestern when it was London Bridge
1:13:52Railways worked for the Department for
1:13:54Transport for many years and he was the
1:13:56reason TIU is happening. And he got it
1:13:59to the point
1:14:00as he said he got it to the point where
1:14:02the the government couldn't back out.
1:14:05So it was it was Stuart that got us over
1:14:07the line. Unfortunately Stuart had a
1:14:09stroke about five years ago now in a TIU
1:14:12meeting
1:14:13never went back to work and died of a
1:14:15heart attack about two years later. And
1:14:17he he was the linchpin within the
1:14:19Department for Transport he was the man
1:14:20that really knew railways and knew what
1:14:22was needed. So it was a big big loss but
1:14:25due to his due to his
1:14:28service over the years
1:14:29in in memory of him we've actually
1:14:31decided or the the the route director
1:14:33Rob McIntosh
1:14:34decided that we we would name the
1:14:36junction after him. There's no better
1:14:38accolade for a railway engineer to have
1:14:39a bit of infrastructure named after them
1:14:41I mean that's a pretty cool one I quite
1:14:43like to have a Hog's junction somewhere
1:14:45at some point I don't think that's going
1:14:46to happen.
1:14:49Ravensthorpe station so you can see the
1:14:51flyover on the right hand side so the
1:14:52fast lines on the right hand side slow
1:14:54lines
1:14:56the plat the station is actually
1:14:57currently on the Leeds lines just at the
1:14:59top top of the picture. We've made the
1:15:00choice to move it to the other side of
1:15:02the junction so you can actually pick up
1:15:03the Wakefield route as well. So any
1:15:05leads to Wakefield or more importantly
1:15:07the Grand Central London trains can now
1:15:09stop at Ravensthorpe as well as
1:15:11just stopping at
1:15:13Mirfield so it relieves some of the
1:15:14pressure on Mirfield in the parking in
1:15:16the Mirfield area. So we just create a
1:15:17parking nightmare here instead probably
1:15:19but that's uh
1:15:20chance. And also there's a four and a
1:15:23half thousand
1:15:25house housing development just off to
1:15:26the right hand side proposed area so
1:15:29having a better connected station that
1:15:31can covers more destinations was an
1:15:33important part of that.
1:15:37So another view of the grade separation
1:15:38in the box. It's a picture of the box
1:15:40itself so we've got the green lines of
1:15:42the fast lines going over the top then
1:15:44underneath you've got the two lines
1:15:45going up to Wakefield and the um
1:15:49Oakenshaw line coming from Leeds
1:15:50underneath so the junction is actually
1:15:52the diamond of the junction is actually
1:15:53underneath underneath the the
1:15:55intersection underneath the box.
1:15:58Which
1:15:59has its disadvantages but given that
1:16:00it's a switch diamond the switch
1:16:02diamonds don't like being in the sun
1:16:03it's actually beneficial to actually
1:16:04have it hidden underneath the box so
1:16:07although it's not the best place to put
1:16:08it it actually has
1:16:09indirect benefits of locating there cuz
1:16:11it keeps it out of direct sunlight.
1:16:14So I mentioned missing Calder bridges
1:16:16the two Calder bridges are actually um
1:16:18grade two listed
1:16:21they have
1:16:22uh
1:16:24structural issues think brittle brittle
1:16:26failures that there's a lot a lot of
1:16:28monitoring on those structures cuz
1:16:30they're not in the best of state. The
1:16:32ability to upgrade those it's very
1:16:34difficult to keep them in their original
1:16:35condition and upgrade them so the choice
1:16:38was made to just make them redundant.
1:16:40They'll probably get turned into a cycle
1:16:41track or something similar
1:16:43but we built our new newer geometry
1:16:45entirely off-line which also aids
1:16:47aids staging in that you build the new
1:16:49infrastructure connect the ends in
1:16:51commission it instead of having to close
1:16:53the railway for a long time to rebuild
1:16:54those bridges. So we're off-line we need
1:16:57to
1:16:58miss the council's waste disposal site
1:17:00so we we we skirt parallel with that and
1:17:02then the reverse curve I mentioned
1:17:04earlier at Thornhill Road bridge top end
1:17:06there
1:17:07we we straighten that out. We we
1:17:09deliberately went off-line sufficiently
1:17:12find the photo off-line sufficiently
1:17:14that we can build the new bridge connect
1:17:16the railway in either side and then the
1:17:18old the old bridge becomes redundant.
1:17:20So those are the two listed um
1:17:24bridges on the existing route.
1:17:26That's the new viaduct so it's two
1:17:29independent structures over the sorry
1:17:30three independent structures over the
1:17:32Calder navigation and it's down to a
1:17:34single four track viaduct when you go
1:17:36over the river Calder.
1:17:40And a little route video.
1:17:42This is 11 minutes so we nearly we're
1:17:44nearly done.
1:17:45So Huddersfield station it's a little
1:17:47bit clunky but it's only to have a look
1:17:49around and I'm going to have to talk
1:17:50fairly quickly over the top of this cuz
1:17:51it doesn't doesn't pause.
1:17:53So we've got the new station the
1:17:55existing train shed roof so the existing
1:17:57roof of Huddersfield is the largest span
1:18:00and only one of four examples of a
1:18:02Euston roof so Euston station which its
1:18:04roof went years ago there's only four
1:18:06examples Huddersfield is the biggest
1:18:07one. So the main train shed from listing
1:18:09perspective and
1:18:11heritage we had to keep. We demolished
1:18:13the small train shed and we're adding a
1:18:14very very we're adding a very
1:18:16contemporary structure alongside. So
1:18:17that's the main train shed which gets
1:18:19renovated has its lantern put back on
1:18:20the top with a new structure alongside.
1:18:23We keep the underpass and we get a new
1:18:25footbridge at the
1:18:27east end as well to cover the fact that
1:18:29the platforms move quite a long way
1:18:30towards Leeds.
1:18:32We head out onto onto the viaduct the
1:18:35major structure in John William Street
1:18:36immediately come out of the station
1:18:39that was completely replaced about 18
1:18:41months ago I think.
1:18:42So we've already already done the works
1:18:44there. The geometry over the bridge is
1:18:47different due to how we come off the
1:18:48platforms and we needed to extend the
1:18:50platforms over the bridge as well so
1:18:52that one has already been reconstructed.
1:18:54We've got four tracks well five
1:18:56initially but straight down to four
1:18:57tracks on the original five track
1:18:59formation over the viaduct.
1:19:01We'll have to have another look at John
1:19:02William Street from the other side.
1:19:06That's Fitzwilliam Street which is the
1:19:07next bridge.
1:19:11So OLE master coincident with the
1:19:14spandrel walls of the viaduct so the
1:19:15line lined up with the abutments and
1:19:17columns.
1:19:19So we go over the bridge which also
1:19:21dictated where the S&C went because
1:19:23they're registering at the overhead
1:19:24line.
1:19:25Uh other end of the viaduct, span 29.
1:19:28Uh so originally a masonry arch for two
1:19:31tracks with metallic extensions, two
1:19:33tracks on one side, one on the other
1:19:34side. Um metallic elements that that
1:19:37were redundant, so only the masonry arch
1:19:40was the live live ball. So those have
1:19:42been removed and replaced uh by
1:19:45pre-stressed concrete beams, which you
1:19:46can see there. Is I before that and
1:19:48there'll be some pictures of it getting
1:19:50installed in a moment.
1:19:53Just lifting out the metallic elements.
1:19:54You can see the the two two-track arch
1:19:56in the middle, which is the middle two
1:19:57tracks.
1:19:59Which is retained.
1:20:05So heading off from almost at the end of
1:20:07uh Huddersfield viaduct. On the
1:20:08left-hand side is Hillhouse sidings. So
1:20:10150 m long signal reception line, so you
1:20:13don't need a shunter to accept a train,
1:20:15so it's fully signaled into reception
1:20:17line and then it splits into four top
1:20:19sidings and uh an engineer's siding on
1:20:22the left-hand side there.
1:20:24It's a view from the opposite end
1:20:25looking back towards Huddersfield.
1:20:30So four tracks
1:20:31all the way through just past temporary
1:20:34platform that we've built.
1:20:36Approaching Deighton station.
1:20:39So the slow lines move to the left to
1:20:40make room for the island platform in the
1:20:42in the island platform but the plat the
1:20:44old platform in the middle.
1:20:45Which meant the reconstruction of the
1:20:47bridge and uh rather interesting uh I
1:20:50think it's a uh reinforced earth
1:20:51embankment cutting slope to the
1:20:55uh east side of the bridge.
1:21:03Wait for the video.
1:21:07The next bridge is the A62 Leeds Road.
1:21:10Uh very very tight abutments. You can
1:21:11see the constraints. See how close the
1:21:13middle two tracks are here together. Six
1:21:14tracks are six full through this
1:21:15structure because the existing abutments
1:21:18uh need rebuilding because it's a very
1:21:20low bridge. You can't get the wires
1:21:21under there.
1:21:22Um so we're actually building a very
1:21:24large new bridge. We'll build a
1:21:25temporary bridge alongside to divert the
1:21:27road, remove the existing bridge, finish
1:21:31widening the new bridge,
1:21:33and then put the road back to a smoother
1:21:36alignment it was before we started. But
1:21:38you end up with a very wide bridge with
1:21:39with a rather large pavement on the on
1:21:41the west side, which looks a bit
1:21:42Somebody will ask in the future, why is
1:21:43it so ridiculous? But that's that's the
1:21:46reason why.
1:21:48Heading on Bradley Junction coming up.
1:21:50So a crossover and league currently 15
1:21:51mph. We up that to 45, get the uh
1:21:54Bradford trains out of the way quicker.
1:21:56Still fast lines on the right, slow
1:21:58lines on the left.
1:22:01Where the uh the existing underpass
1:22:03diverts off to the left. The left-hand
1:22:06two tracks are the existing two tracks.
1:22:08But our new
1:22:09chord line in fast lines 100 mph cutting
1:22:12the corner off.
1:22:14There's a lot of earthworks and some
1:22:15reinforced earthworks in there as well
1:22:17to steepen the slopes.
1:22:19Uh aerial view. So the the topography to
1:22:22the right-hand side or above as you can
1:22:23see there is significantly higher, so
1:22:25it's a it's a fairly substantial
1:22:27cutting.
1:22:35That's the existing underpass which
1:22:37returns as the up slow.
1:22:39Uh at the end of the chord line uh
1:22:42connect back in with the existing
1:22:43routes.
1:22:44Again, slow lines on the left, fast
1:22:46lines on the right. We've now picked up
1:22:48the Calder Valley lines have come in. Uh
1:22:50slow line coming in from Huddersfield
1:22:51after the underpass.
1:22:55Slowly work towards uh
1:22:58Mirfield.
1:23:05Got Mirfield viaduct.
1:23:07Interesting, Mirfield viaduct was a was
1:23:09two tracks until very late. It was only
1:23:11four tracks in 19 30s. Uh and they they
1:23:16uh metallic elements, so that's the view
1:23:17from the from the north. So the view
1:23:19from the south in a moment. Metallic
1:23:21addition in the 1930s actually one of
1:23:23the worst structures on the route. So
1:23:24there's quite a lot of work needed to to
1:23:26revamp and uh strengthen the the
1:23:28existing structure for us to support new
1:23:30110 mph railway over it.
1:23:34Uh new Mirfield station. So the station
1:23:37is actually on off the foreground to
1:23:38left. It's entirely uh this side of the
1:23:40road. Um
1:23:42so it's part of the station access with
1:23:43a new car park. Um so the main access is
1:23:47from from the south side. We've retained
1:23:48the access from the road underpass via a
1:23:50vestibule and then up a staircase.
1:23:52You've got a subterranean foyer in there
1:23:54as well, but that's a a new 150 m long
1:23:57station capable of being extended if
1:23:59needed.
1:24:01Uh
1:24:02continuing on.
1:24:05Only three tracks, so it's the second
1:24:07track from the right is currently
1:24:08missing, but the outside track is only
1:24:1040 mph, so it's an S3 rebuild. Rebuild
1:24:13the uh the up loop and add turning to
1:24:17the up fast and then add the down fast.
1:24:19So this is now approaching the grade
1:24:21separation at Ravensthorpe. So we've got
1:24:24yet another new station at Ravensthorpe.
1:24:26There we go.
1:24:27Hopefully we'll have some waiting
1:24:29shelters on it. It's not there on the
1:24:30model. It's not going to be quite as
1:24:31bare as that. So a single access bridge
1:24:33from from the far side.
1:24:36Our flyover lines, fast lines are
1:24:38climbing up. Uh and then as soon as you
1:24:41go on past uh to the east of uh Calder
1:24:43Road,
1:24:44um you've got the intersection bridge
1:24:46with the junction sat underneath it.
1:25:01Some interesting gradients at 1 in 70 we
1:25:03ended up using for the flyover. Is that
1:25:05correct, James?
1:25:06It's 1 in 80. 1 in 80. Uh so we did
1:25:08quite a lot of modeling. So although
1:25:09this is the fast lines are not a freight
1:25:11route and via Leeds isn't a freight
1:25:14route, it's only engineering trains.
1:25:15Still need to be capable of getting a
1:25:17freight train up there. So the generic
1:25:19steep ignoring miles platting bank at
1:25:21Manchester, the generic steepest
1:25:22gradient on the route was 1 in 75, 1 in
1:25:2578 in two different locations. So 1 in
1:25:2880 was the was the chosen gradient for
1:25:30for the for the new line even though in
1:25:32theory it doesn't it doesn't get freight
1:25:34traffic. So that's the new Baker
1:25:35viaduct. So as the the the middle two
1:25:38lines are higher, so it's an independent
1:25:39structure until you get to the bridge
1:25:42and that becomes the four-track viaduct
1:25:43to that point.
1:25:45Down to two tracks and you will just see
1:25:47where we cross over the existing lines.
1:25:50Shoots from the bottom left across the
1:25:51right-hand side and then back across
1:25:53again.
1:25:54Approaching Thornhill Road.
1:26:04And then it's Dewsbury station in in the
1:26:06distance just there.
1:26:16Yeah, one
1:26:17uh and that's the final view of of Baker
1:26:19viaduct.
1:26:20So
1:26:23that's it from the track perspective.
1:26:24I've got about 10 more slides just
1:26:26talking about the station and the
1:26:27architecture. So it'd be worth just uh
1:26:29flicking through those quickly. I'm just
1:26:30looking at Louise as to whether or not
1:26:31I'll
1:26:32Cuz I'm at 7:00 already.
1:26:35Uh feel feel So we finished talking
1:26:37track, so if you do need to go, feel
1:26:38free to go. So I won't be offended. Um
1:26:41so Huddersfield station, uh Harold
1:26:44Wilson statue outside the station. So
1:26:45grade one listed structure. I talked I
1:26:47talked about that earlier.
1:26:49Um
1:26:50So
1:26:52the
1:26:53existing train shed I mentioned the main
1:26:55uh
1:26:56roof phase, the main train shed roof B.
1:26:58B is the small train shed and C is a
1:27:00cantilever
1:27:01uh later addition cantilever on on the
1:27:03side. Uh so we're keeping A, we're
1:27:05removing B and C, and putting a new
1:27:08canopy alongside. So the yellow is the
1:27:09proposed platform with the orange is the
1:27:12um second platform access. We've got the
1:27:14existing subway which is lengthened,
1:27:16extended. Um we've got a secondary route
1:27:19via via a footbridge at the eastern end
1:27:21at the Leeds end.
1:27:23Um so we the pink there is our new uh
1:27:27contemporary um
1:27:28gullwing roof and we extend the existing
1:27:33canopy. So we've actually shortened the
1:27:34canopy at the Manchester end.
1:27:37Uh we've taken
1:27:39roughly four of the
1:27:41trusses out um
1:27:43and move them to move We move them to
1:27:45the other end. The reason we move them
1:27:46to the other end is the fact that the
1:27:48because of the way the pedestrian
1:27:49platform and all the track layout
1:27:50between the tunnel and the station, the
1:27:52entire station moves towards Leeds. So
1:27:54it it enables us to to line everything
1:27:56up. So the the struc the trusses that
1:27:58have come out are actually getting
1:28:00reused and reinstated to to put the
1:28:03uh Leeds end of the canopy back to where
1:28:05it was originally. So it was actually
1:28:06curtailed in the late 1970s, I think. Um
1:28:10which is when it lost its lantern.
1:28:13So that's a cross-section. So the
1:28:15right-hand uh structure is retained. The
1:28:17the left-hand uh truss is removed and
1:28:20then we get this uh contemporary
1:28:22gullwing arrangement. Which was
1:28:24originally open to the elements. Uh so
1:28:26the vertical element in the middle would
1:28:27would would didn't exist until somebody
1:28:29pointed out that that that point that's
1:28:31in the direction of the prevailing
1:28:33winds, which is so in the middle of
1:28:34winter you'll have a absolute howling
1:28:36gale running through the station at
1:28:37Huddersfield. Uh so that's that's now
1:28:39closed off and can be closed or clad,
1:28:42but uh the structure now is um
1:28:45is at least closed off.
1:28:48Uh and that's a
1:28:49complete visualization of what they
1:28:52canopy looks like. Some more views.
1:28:55Uh bridge at the other end, so we've got
1:28:56another contemporary footbridge. Uh not
1:28:58quite sure how they're going to clean
1:28:59the glass on that, but uh
1:29:01my problem.
1:29:04So um obviously the top right is the um
1:29:08the solar modeling of uh the all the
1:29:10glass that's that's going in.
1:29:12Uh and part of the reason for for
1:29:14angling the glass is to avoid having um
1:29:16sunlight glare back to the driver as
1:29:18well to make sure that the angles the
1:29:20angles work so you don't obscure
1:29:23signal sighting and then just a few
1:29:25quick slides on current progress. So
1:29:28transport works out already came through
1:29:31end of last year I think so work started
1:29:33on site. So this is the new Baker
1:29:35Viaduct so these are all the piles going
1:29:37in for uh
1:29:39for the raft for the foundations. You'll
1:29:40see the existing Calder Bridge in the
1:29:42background so
1:29:43this is where the viaducts goes over the
1:29:45Calder navigation it climbs up uh
1:29:47towards in fact I've actually put it on
1:29:49that's roughly the geometry of the the
1:29:51proposed line with the photograph.
1:29:54As we move up to the junction
1:29:56this is geometry goes roughly through
1:29:58there so there's a
1:29:59significant amount of earthworks we need
1:30:01to cut back cut back the the cutting
1:30:03slope and put a step slope so we've got
1:30:05a railway halfway up that slope so
1:30:06there's few few hundred million tons of
1:30:09uh
1:30:09muck to shift probably in there.
1:30:12And a couple of views looking the other
1:30:13way so some major civil engineering
1:30:15works
1:30:16in play now.
1:30:18So the plan is that box is designed to
1:30:21be entirely off the existing geometry so
1:30:23the full intersection bridge Baker
1:30:24Viaduct all the earthworks around it are
1:30:27constructed in advance
1:30:29the Wakefield lines are getting diverted
1:30:31through the box and then they finish off
1:30:33the earthworks at the the Huddersfield
1:30:34end
1:30:35of
1:30:36the scheme so this minimize minimize
1:30:39disruption
1:30:40on the route and that is it finally.
1:30:44146 slides later.
1:30:48So any any questions? Do you want to
1:30:50come and work with the computer there?
1:30:59So anyone in the room got any questions?
1:31:02Yeah.
1:31:03Is that Malcolm?
1:31:05Um
1:31:06you've still got some significant double
1:31:07track sections left really just Dewsbury
1:31:09but probably Huddersfield and
1:31:11Stalybridge.
1:31:12With a mixture of all them fast trains
1:31:14are still stopping service.
1:31:16How do you manage to
1:31:18accommodate that with that
1:31:21With difficulty. Yeah we thought so. Uh
1:31:24so
1:31:25um
1:31:27a stopping service leaves so the plan is
1:31:30for the fast trains to be at quarter
1:31:32hourly intervals. The answer is we will
1:31:34have to flex the exact quarter hour that
1:31:35was originally agreed is that your four
1:31:38fast trains are on the clock face and we
1:31:40fit everything else in between. We are
1:31:41actually going to have to flex that now
1:31:43so DfT are happy with a couple of
1:31:44minutes flex to make that work. But
1:31:46generically the stopping service the
1:31:49Huddersfield stopping service leaves
1:31:50Leeds two minutes behind the fast
1:31:51service.
1:31:53By the time it gets to Baker Junction
1:31:54Baker Junction the next fast service has
1:31:56caught it up.
1:31:57Extending the four tracking to include
1:31:59Dewsbury station wouldn't made a huge
1:32:00difference but there are 11 structures
1:32:02in that three quarter of a mile length
1:32:04between Baker Junction and Dewsbury
1:32:06station. It was going to be a really
1:32:07really expensive intervention. That's
1:32:09actually something that Northern
1:32:10Powerhouse Rail uh HS2 are looking at
1:32:13further extending the four tracking but
1:32:15for the volume of trains that we've got
1:32:17it does just work. Um
1:32:19it does work from a timetable
1:32:21perspective there's just potential
1:32:22performance hit which is why it was
1:32:23really important to be able to get those
1:32:24stopping trains off quickly.
1:32:26Yeah. Um It must be susceptible though
1:32:28with a few minutes delay. It did I
1:32:30absolutely yes yes. And especially on
1:32:32the very long section across the top and
1:32:34filling down the other side. So the
1:32:37there is a significant so we it was
1:32:40it worked relatively well
1:32:43until we added freight. At the top there
1:32:45so um so your four fast your two
1:32:48semi-fast and your two stoppers between
1:32:49Huddersfield and Manchester worked. As
1:32:51soon as you try and squeeze freight in
1:32:53as well
1:32:54one path and now you you almost
1:32:56certainly lose that second stopping
1:32:58service so you'll have your two the
1:33:01likely output is not determined yet
1:33:03because we're still working on concept
1:33:04timetable three. Um but the likely
1:33:06scenario is that you'll have your two
1:33:07stoppers during morning and evening peak
1:33:09and in the middle of the day you'll lose
1:33:10one of those for to be able to get
1:33:12freight services through there. Freight
1:33:14is a significant challenge because as I
1:33:15mentioned earlier whatever speed they're
1:33:16doing at the bottom they'll do all the
1:33:18way up the hill. Um so W2C is still in
1:33:22development because it is proposed that
1:33:24we three track we put a long up loop all
1:33:27the way from Gledhow all the way up to
1:33:28up to including Marsden and it includes
1:33:30Slaithwaite and Marsden stations.
1:33:32So that is primarily an up loop but
1:33:34we're putting in the middle and
1:33:36connecting it to down lines as well so
1:33:37you've actually got a dynamic loop that
1:33:38can be used both ways but it's
1:33:40predominantly an up loop capable of
1:33:41being used in the down direction. Um on
1:33:44the timetable we'll probably end up
1:33:45using it both ways. So you put it in the
1:33:47middle? Put it in the middle yeah. Yeah
1:33:48that makes sense to me yeah.
1:33:50And we platforms on all three lines at
1:33:51Slaithwaite and Marsden so you can run
1:33:53your trains on whichever line. That's a
1:33:54whole another presentation also we'll
1:33:56leave that one later. But getting over
1:33:57the hill is a challenge and even with
1:33:59that three tracking you've still got a
1:34:00challenge coming in the opposite
1:34:01direction
1:34:03so we're looking at options for loops
1:34:04around Manchester so Baguley Fold area
1:34:06we're potentially going to have to put
1:34:07freight regulating loops in there
1:34:10because you literally can't get all the
1:34:12way from Manchester Victoria through to
1:34:14Huddersfield before then fast train has
1:34:16caught freight train. So there's some
1:34:18significant challenges you quite correct
1:34:20the two track sections are significant
1:34:21challenges and east of Leeds similar
1:34:24so Leeds through to Leeds through to
1:34:26Micklefield is is an absolute nightmare
1:34:27that's actually the worst portion of
1:34:29TIU.
1:34:30Um as it stands at the moment. Again NPR
1:34:32are looking at partially four tracking
1:34:34and then potentially grade separating
1:34:36Micklefield Junction there's lots of
1:34:37things that that that could be done to
1:34:39improve that portion of route. The only
1:34:41thing that's semi-definite is
1:34:43um the new Thorpe Park station where the
1:34:45M62 crosses us
1:34:47from M62 the M1 crosses the railway
1:34:49Garforth immediately to the west of that
1:34:51there's a proposal by the council to
1:34:52build a park and ride station so that's
1:34:55Thorpe Park station. So four track have
1:34:57a short four track station that picks up
1:34:59the new Thorpe Park station and
1:35:00Crossgates station. So you've got a
1:35:02dynamic loop with two stops so then that
1:35:04allows the fast train to pass and pass a
1:35:05stopper so that is likely but it's not
1:35:10currently currently in scope. But
1:35:12there's a lot more to come. There's a
1:35:13lot to Yes. So the reason
1:35:15I'm still
1:35:16uh working the development team in TIU
1:35:18is because we still don't know what
1:35:20we're building after working on it for
1:35:21eight years and we're building half of
1:35:22it but we're still the client is
1:35:23constantly changing their mind i.e. the
1:35:25government and the DfT as to what they
1:35:27want which keeps me in a job
1:35:30and has done for for for a number of
1:35:31years and will continue to do so for at
1:35:33least the next five I'm guessing so
1:35:35uh
1:35:37Thank you James. Um any more questions
1:35:39Alaric?
1:35:41Yeah um great presentation James thanks.
1:35:43Um I'm intrigued by the big bang option
1:35:45um
1:35:46talked about beginning couple slides. Um
1:35:49I think you mentioned I think when you
1:35:51started said the whole um
1:35:53budget project about 11 and a half
1:35:54billion it stands at? Yes. Something
1:35:56like that and you meant and then you
1:35:57said that the big bang was more.
1:36:00How much more was it? Uh
1:36:02the answer is I can't remember because
1:36:03that was about seven years ago. Um at
1:36:06the time that we looked at it the budget
1:36:07was three billion pounds 3.1 billion not
1:36:0911 um so it didn't fall within the
1:36:12budget at the time. Uh when there's
1:36:14there's lots of there's lots of
1:36:15challenges on TIU. Uh would you have
1:36:17actually been better not doing TIU at
1:36:19all and spending two billion pounds on
1:36:21doing a better job at Leeds station
1:36:22because that's the linchpin for the
1:36:23whole of Yorkshire. Although it was only
1:36:25rebuilt 20 years ago and it made a big
1:36:27difference because it was a 50% extra
1:36:29capacity going from four to six tracks
1:36:31at the west end it's still a significant
1:36:33constraint in the area so
1:36:34there are lots of
1:36:36left field challenges as to well do you
1:36:38really want to do that you should be
1:36:39doing this which is another interesting
1:36:42point when it comes to consents because
1:36:43it's a single scheme over a very very
1:36:47over 70 miles of route. Whenever you go
1:36:49for a transport works act order the
1:36:51challenge is always why are you doing it
1:36:52here why can't you do it somewhere else?
1:36:55So we need to be very very consistent
1:36:56with our approach for feasibility over
1:36:58the whole route and deal with everything
1:36:59in a consistent way so we can answer
1:37:01those questions why do we actually have
1:37:03to do a big four tracking scheme between
1:37:05Huddersfield and Dewsbury? So a lot of
1:37:08the slides that I had today are actually
1:37:10pulled from the transport works act
1:37:11order order slides so a lot of the
1:37:12images
1:37:14and diagrams come come from there.
1:37:16Thanks I want to ask a question. Um I've
1:37:19never seen so many schemes in my life
1:37:21but
1:37:22don't quite understand um
1:37:25how the system works. Do you know
1:37:28Network Rail come up with the options
1:37:30and you work them up or are you a
1:37:32totally separate organization? So I
1:37:36I work for myself but I am actually
1:37:38contracted directly within Network
1:37:40Rail
1:37:41but we've we've actually we've got an
1:37:43alliance of uh
1:37:45Arabs AM E Network Rail
1:37:48uh and Bam as before the main main um
1:37:52participants. We've got Siemens as well
1:37:53now for signaling and digital signaling
1:37:55with ETCS. Um so
1:37:58it's it's
1:38:00uh
1:38:01an alliance based commutative approach
1:38:03so we have outputs so Network Rail have
1:38:06not stipulated the interventions they've
1:38:08stipulated what we need to achieve and
1:38:10then we develop schemes to achieve those
1:38:12outputs.
1:38:13Um
1:38:14there is an element of
1:38:16you need to be doing this as part of it
1:38:17but it's what that doing this looks like
1:38:20is still being part of the development
1:38:21which with that multi-disciplinary
1:38:23approach.
1:38:24So you've got a
1:38:25a lovely layout at the east end of
1:38:28Huddersfield but the west end
1:38:30what about a 2000 ton freight train
1:38:33heading west?
1:38:36You know it's got to
1:38:38So
1:38:40So luckily we haven't got it's it's 1800
1:38:43tons is our remit which is freight into
1:38:45Mogul. You do actually have 2500 ton
1:38:47biomass trains that get diverted that
1:38:49way but they predominantly go via Calder
1:38:51Valley.
1:38:52Um so it's predominantly 1800 ton train
1:38:54that we're worrying about. Um
1:38:56so I mentioned about trying to get it
1:38:58into the station as quickly as possible.
1:38:59When we developed that high speed ladder
1:39:01to try and manage the freight trains
1:39:02that did were were envisaged at the time
1:39:04we've got more now.
1:39:06Um
1:39:06that was assuming that we were then
1:39:07going to have to run with all the fast
1:39:09trains all the way to to Stalybridge or
1:39:12or further.
1:39:13Now we've got three tracking as soon as
1:39:15you get beyond Huddersfield and Gledholt
1:39:17Tunnel, you only need to manage that
1:39:19really short one 1.5 mile long two track
1:39:21section and then you're back onto a
1:39:22dedicated line for the freight train. So
1:39:24it's significantly less impactful is
1:39:26that slow train now. The fact that you
1:39:28can squeeze it through the station,
1:39:30through the tunnel and then you get it
1:39:31out of the way again to go up the hill.
1:39:33Will those tracks will be bi-directional
1:39:35all the way through to Um
1:39:41Not initially with conventional
1:39:42signaling. There will be with ETCS
1:39:44because we're going to get
1:39:44bi-directional signaling everywhere with
1:39:46ETCS. Um so but under normal working it
1:39:49will be be an up the Southbound will be
1:39:51an up line and the Northbound will be a
1:39:52down line. So that freight train needs
1:39:55to come across the layout, get onto the
1:39:56up line and then and then go onto the up
1:39:59loop or the the in on the center loop in
1:40:01the up direction.
1:40:05It is another whole presentation cuz the
1:40:07the connections on the down direction
1:40:08are not actually at the end of the loop,
1:40:10they're halfway along which allows the
1:40:11tender loop to be used by two trains at
1:40:13the same time because one can still get
1:40:14out the the way of the other one. Um so
1:40:17even that's quite complicated as to to
1:40:19how we're proposing that so there's been
1:40:20a reasonable amount of
1:40:22development. But because that's still in
1:40:24development and not
1:40:26committed and in delivery so I'm trying
1:40:28to just concentrate on what we what
1:40:29we've already done and what we're
1:40:30currently committed to deliver so.
1:40:33Any more questions online?
1:40:36No? Okay, we can thank James and you can
1:40:38use your way.
1:40:44Okay, presentation. Very good. I broke
1:40:45my record with 46 slides. Well done.
1:40:50Look forward to another presentation on
1:40:51this when you got some of the other
1:40:53proposals worked out.
1:40:55Cuz
1:40:56that was really good.
1:40:59You know what I think you got last
1:41:00question actually online. Say any
1:41:02concern with historic mining works,
1:41:04particularly Colne Bridge corner or
1:41:06Ravensknowle area? Um so we've got
1:41:09concerns with mine workings pretty much
1:41:11everywhere on transfer line whether it's
1:41:12east or west but mostly in west of
1:41:14Leeds. Um
1:41:17I am I am not well enough informed to
1:41:19say what we're doing but it is a
1:41:21significant concern even all the way
1:41:23over to Manchester so the Manchester
1:41:24through to Stalybridge element there
1:41:27were issues there with mine workings and
1:41:28the overhead line
1:41:30foundations that we're putting in.
1:41:32Um so yeah, significant risk. Also
1:41:34unexploded ordnance of Second World War
1:41:36ordnance so Huddersfield was quite
1:41:37heavily bombed in the war.
1:41:39Um I don't think we've had any incidents
1:41:41yet but that's another
1:41:43concern.
1:41:45Makes sense.
1:41:47Good. Thank you very much. Okay.
1:41:49I'm going to bring you a black sack and
1:41:50you I'll sit down there.
1:41:52Don't let it collapse.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Better layouts for a better railway - James Hodge by Railway Engineering Institution (RailEI), generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 19,258 words across 3,096 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.