This just in from Network Rail –
Dear Sir / Madam,
Following your previous interest in the scheme, I am writing to update you on Network Rail’s proposals for Dore and Grindleford on the Hope Valley railway line, which form a key part of the Northern Hub investment programme to deliver faster, more frequent services across the North of England.
The Northern Hub programme, combined with electrification, will help stimulate economic growth by improving connectivity between keytowns and cities.
The investment will:
• Allow up to 700 more trains to run a day
• Create space for up to 44 million extra passengers a year
• Provide over £4bn worth of wider economic benefits to the region
• Create up to 20,000 to 30,000 new jobs
As you may remember, the plans we are exploring seek to improve capacity and reliability between Sheffield and Manchester, and will be delivered in line with a wider timetable change by December 2018.
As detailed in last year’s public consultation, the scheme was originally developed around a draft timetable to deliver four trains per hour along the route. In order to achieve this, the optimum solution would have been to build a new section of railway in the vicinity of Grindleford station.
However, since the consultation, the rail industry has reviewed the scope of the whole Northern Hub programme. Although Grindleford is still considered to be the optimum location, as a result of the review it has been identified that a new section of track further west of Grindleford could potentially be an alternative location as it could provide increased resilience during periods of disruption.
As such, we are now exploring alternative options for the location of the new track and are at an early stage with this work. It is important to note that this will not require a change to the proposed scheme at Dore and Totley.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that responded to the first phase of consultation. We received a high volume of feedback and the comments have been reviewed and will continue to be considered as we develop the revised scheme. We hope to contact you in the summer with more information about the proposals and next stage of consultation. We are very much committed to working with the local community and interested stakeholders as we progress this important scheme.
In the meantime if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards,
Matt Hadlington
Communications Manager
Network Rail