UK: The release of a further £3·9bn tranche of funding for the ongoing £11·5bn Transpennine Route Upgrade was confirmed by Rail Minister Huw Merriman on December 4.
The Department for Transport indicated that work on TRU would be accelerated through the cash injection and noted that the announcement means the government has now committed to invest a total of £6·9bn in the project, with the initial £3bn being used to deliver early benefits by the middle of the decade, including electrification.
The latest tranche will fund an increase from two to four tracks between Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe, allowing faster trains to overtake stopping and freight services. A grade-separated junction for the line to Wakefield will be built with a flyover taking the tracks over a river valley to the east of the re-sited Ravensthorpe station.
The announcement also confirms that the line east from Huddersfield will be electrified and work undertaken to prepare the route for a future ETCS deployment.
Managing Director for the Transpennine Route Upgrade Neil Holm said ‘this commitment by the government to our programme allows us to move two of our largest projects from design into construction and delivery. It brings us one big step closer to delivering the future of rail travel in the north of England.’
The wider TRU programme includes electrification of the whole route between Manchester and York, development of digital signalling, station improvements and infrastructure works to allow more passenger and freight services to use diversionary routes while the core trans-Pennine route is closed for upgrading. These will then provide capacity and reliability improvements once the project is completed in the mid-2030s.
Confirming the latest funding, Merriman said ‘work is going to time and going to budget. It is really exciting to see that in years to come where we are standing right now will be the ability for faster trains to go past slower trains; that will reduce the average delay times by a half, and of course add more train paths not just for passengers but also for freight’.
Rolling stock
DfT said that along with the Northern’s ongoing procurement of new electric trains it would also be supporting TransPennine Express in the procurement of ‘up to 29 new trains to replace the existing diesel fleet’.
In an internal message to TransPennine Express staff later in the day, the operator’s Managing Director Chris Jackson suggested that the ministerial green light could lead to the procurement of up to 55 more trains.
Responses
Rob Warnes, Strategic Development Director for Northern, said ‘the successful delivery of the TRU programme is crucial for boosting the economy of the north, with faster, greener and more frequent trains the key to connecting people with better employment, education and leisure opportunities’.
Commenting on the ‘restatement of previously announced funding’, Railway Industry Association CEO Darren Caplan said that ‘as far as we understand, this is not new money for rail and is not a new pipeline opportunity for rail suppliers’.
He said RIA members ’now await the next business case update for TRU, as well as certainty on a rolling stock strategy for the project, enhanced governance arrangements and review of the impact of inflation on costs’.
