Northern Hub

Schematic map showing rail improvements through Manchester city centre as part of the Northern Hub.

Manchester Victoria station was voted the worst station in the UK in 2009. As part of the Northern Hub, the station will be modernised with a new roof which will be completed by early 2015.

Northern Hub is a series of proposed works across Northern England to stimulate economic growth by increasing train services, reducing journey times and electrifying lines between the major cities and towns of Northern England.^[1] It is a steering partnership between Network Rail, Deutsche Bahn, First TransPennine Express, Northern Rail, East Midlands Trains, CrossCountry Trains, Freightliner, Department for Transport, Transport for Greater Manchester and Merseytravel.^[2][3] The proposal was first announced in 2009 as the Manchester Hub which entailed a series of upgrades which would cut journey times between cities in Northern England by alleviating the rail bottleneck through Manchester.^[3][4]

Central to the project will be resolving the rail bottleneck through Manchester city centre to allow more routes, more capacity and quicker journey times across the Northern cities. Two new through platforms at Piccadilly will allow 14 trains per hour (up from 10 currently) through Manchester city centre allowing more routes and trains. Manchester Victoria station will be modernised as the east-west rail interchange in Northern England. Trains from the north east to Manchester Airport will use a new section of railway, the £85 million Ordsall Chord, between Manchester Victoria and Manchester Oxford Road to reach Manchester Piccadilly and continue to the Airport without reversing at Piccadilly and without conflicting movements at the station throat. Services from Liverpool to Leeds and beyond would be diverted from the Cheshire Lines route via Warrington Central and Manchester Piccadilly to the electrified line via Newton-le-Willows and Manchester Victoria.

The results of the Manchester Hub Study outlining the project were released by Network Rail in February 2010, estimating the cost at £530 million (later £560 million).^[3][5] Chancellor George Osborne approved expenditure of £85 million for the new track link itself in his budget on 23 March 2011,^[6] with other aspects of the scheme to be reviewed, to make sure that best value for money would be achieved. A further £130 million was committed in Osborne's budget of March 2012,^[7] and approval for the full scheme was confirmed by the government on 16 July 2012. The first trains are expected to run on the new linking track in 2016, with the full package of enhancements to be in place by 2018.^[8]

Support for the scheme has been vociferous from civic leaders, business leaders due to the high benefit-to-cost ratio and politicians such as Chancellor George Osborne but criticised for being incremental and simply bringing the rail network in Northern England to "where it should have been a decade ago".^[9] The scheme has a benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of £4 for every £1 invested - double that of Crossrail and the proposed High Speed 2 which have a BCR of £2.10 and £2.30 respectively.^[10][11] A more comprehensive upgrade of inter-city travel in Northern England was proposed in 2014 which has been nicknamed (perhaps erroneously due to the proposal being an upgrade of existing routes) 'High Speed 3' and 'Crossrail of the North'.

Background

Approximately 90% of Northern Rail's rolling stock was built in the 1980s, including the unpopular "Pacers" (pictured). As of 2014, the last investment in new-built rolling stock for Northern Rail was in 1998.^[12][13]

The Northern Hub was first proposed in February 2010. A number of recurring problems were identified in Manchester city centre which restricted route capacity and frequently caused delays:
1. Terminating trains in through platforms. The first was terminating trains in through platforms (as opposed to termini platforms) at Manchester Victoria station, thus taking potential capacity from trains which travel through Manchester city centre. The problem could be mitigated by an additional terminating platform west of the station but it was decided operational efficiencies could be achieved by altering route paths which would consequently relieve congestion.

2. Congestion at Manchester Piccadilly. The second was reversing trains which stopped at Manchester Piccadilly but reversed back out to Manchester Airport. For examples trains travelling between Liverpool and Yorkshire/East Midlands via Manchester Piccadilly have to switch lines across the throat of the station, thus temporarily blocking all other services.

3. Freight demands. The third and final dimension was the use of rail freight through Manchester city centre which is unusual for a city centre rail network. Currently two freight trains per hour pass through Manchester city centre to Trafford Park and no alternative route exists.^[14] The issue of freight using passenger routes through Manchester city centre had been raised in Parliament as far back as 2002.^[15]

Network Rail concluded that no single intervention would unlock this bottleneck but that greater efficiency and enhancement of services was possible. A proposal to use Piccadilly primarily for north-south services and Victoria for east-west services was agreed as the most effective course of action.^[16]

This re-alignment plan started to come to fruition in May 2014 with TransPennine Express services between Liverpool Lime Street and Newcastle Central routed through Manchester Victoria rather than Manchester Piccadilly. It is expected most, if not all TransPennine Express services will pass through Victoria by 2018 shortly after the completion of the Ordsall Chord.

Timeline

Ten new Class 350 were introduced to coincide with Newton-le-Willows to Manchester electrification in 2013. The trains operate on the Edinburgh to Manchester route.

Network Rail's aim is for all schemes - including electrification, station upgrades and track work - to be completed by the end of 2018.

2013

• April - work begins on restoring Manchester Victoria station
• 30 December - Manchester to West Coast Main Line and Newton-le-Willows electrification complete. New four-carriage Class 350s are introduced, reducing journey times and increasing capacity on the Edinburgh-Manchester Airport route.

2014

• 20 May - a new fast service between Liverpool and Newcastle via Manchester Victoria begins delivering journey time reductions
• December - Newton-le-Willows to Liverpool Lime Street and Huyton to Wigan electrification complete - delayed, first services Liverpool to Manchester Airport did not run until March 2015. Four-carriage Class 319s will be introduced increasing capacity between Liverpool and Manchester Airport via Manchester Piccadilly.

2015

• Spring - Completion of Manchester Victoria station redevelopment

2016

• Early 2016 - work begins on building two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly and re-configuring Manchester Oxford Road (subject to application approval, expected in late 2015)
• May - Preston-Blackpool electrification complete
• December - Manchester Victoria to Preston electrification complete
• December - Manchester to Stalybridge electrification complete (TP phase 1)

2017

• Ordsall Chord operational

2018

• Platforms 15 and 16 to be operational at Manchester Piccadilly
• December
  • Manchester to Leeds and York electrification complete (TP phase 2)
  • Two new platforms at Manchester Piccadilly completed and operational

Proposal

The partially complete new roof at Manchester Victoria in July 2014

Major station upgrades

A number of major station upgrades which include new platforms, station layout re-configuration and redevelopment. Most of the improvements will be in Manchester to alleviate a 'major bottleneck' which frequently causes delays to passing services and restricts routes.

Manchester Victoria

Manchester Victoria station - the centrepiece of the Northern Hub, the station will be re-configured as the railway hub of Northern England by accepting east-west rail services. Once voted the worst station in the United Kingdom, Victoria will receive a £44 million transformation which includes a new £20 million roof encapsulating the entire concourse and four platforms.

Manchester Piccadily

Manchester Piccadilly - the two through platforms, 13 and 14, will be modernised and two new through platforms (15 and 16) will be built over Fairfield Street to alleviate congestion.^[17]

Manchester Oxford Road

Manchester Oxford Road - the platforms will be lengthened and a new station footbridge will be built. The Grade II listed timber grid-shell roof will be incorporated into the new station.^[18] As part of the redevelopment the surrounding site around Oxford Road station could be redeveloped with up to 500,000 sq ft of office, residential and leisure space.^[19][20] It is expected Network Rail will operate Oxford Road directly following the completion of redevelopment in 2018.

Leeds

Two new platforms will be built at a cost of £13.6 million to alleviate congestion.^[21]

Salford Crescent

The station will receive a £12 million redevelopment programme with a view to further development should capacity be required.^[22]

Station improvements

Many railway stations in need of further capacity will see improvements.

• Manchester Airport - a new platform will be built at Manchester Airport to create more capacity allowing for direct services from other cities in Northern England. Construction of the new platform began in February 2014.^[23]
• Huyton and Roby - two new tracks through the stations to allow faster trains to pass and will also provide two additional platforms.
• Burnley Manchester Road - will receive a £2.3 million upgrade ahead of the reinstatement of a direct rail service to Manchester Victoria (via re-opened Todmorden Curve) in 2015.^[24]
• Dore and Totley railway station - the station is to receive an extra platform, increasing the station to two platforms from one. The current single track will be upgraded to two tracks, with a footbridge for passengers to cross to the new platform.^[25]

Expected benefits

A 1900 tiled mural of the rail network in Northern England at Manchester Victoria.

If funded in full, Northern Hub is expected to deliver the following benefits:^[26]

• 14 trains an hour through Manchester city centre - compared with 10 currently - allowing for more trains and new routes through Manchester
• Up to 700 more trains per day with space for 44 million more people to travel by train each year
• Two new fast trains per hour between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool Lime Street
• Six fast trains an hour between Leeds and Manchester (as opposed to four now)
• New rail services to Manchester Airport from Bradford, Calder Valley, Halifax, Chester
• A 15-minute rail service to Manchester Airport running between Victoria, Oxford Road, Piccadilly and onwards to Manchester Airport.
• A new express service between Liverpool Lime Street and Newcastle Central via Manchester Victoria and Leeds. This service started in May 2014.

Journey times

The Class 319 will provide faster journey times and greater capacity compared with pacer trains. The refurbished Class 319 will enter service in December 2014 between Liverpool and Manchester.

As part of the Northern Hub scheme; electrification of key lines will enable faster electric rolling stock which increases capacity and lowers journey times. Typically, diesel trains that operate between Manchester and Liverpool such as the Class 142 and Class 156 have a maximum speed limit of 75 mph. Following electrification, Class 319 will be used enabling a top speed of 100 mph.

Network Rail have published target times from Manchester which they hope will be achieved following improvements that the Northern Hub entails:^[3]

• Leeds and Manchester target time: 40 minutes - a reduction of 14 minutes
• Bradford and Manchester target time: 50 minutes - a reduction of 10 minutes
• Manchester and Sheffield target time: 40 minutes - a reduction of 8 minutes
• Chester and Manchester target time: 40 minutes - a reduction of 23 minutes
• Liverpool and Manchester target time: 30 minutes - a reduction of 17 minutes. A reduced journey time of 37 minutes was achieved in May 2014 with the introduction of a new 'express' route between Liverpool and Manchester. The introduction of Class 319 trains in May 2015 will reduce journey times between both cities to 30 minutes.
• Manchester and Preston target time: 30 minutes - a reduction of 9 minutes
• In addition, there will be faster journey times to the East Midlands via Sheffield, Chester, Halifax, Hull, Newcastle and the North East

Infrastructure

A diagram showing the Ordsall Chord.

The plans that make up the Northern Hub include:^[27]

• Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria directly linked by the Ordsall Chord
• Improvement of existing stations in need of renovation, most notably the roofless Manchester Victoria which was rated as the worst station in the United Kingdom in 2009.^[28]
• New platforms at Manchester Piccadilly for trains arriving from/going to Oxford Road, enabling traffic from the north and west of the city to get to the south side of the city.
• New passing track on the line from Liverpool to Manchester via Newton-le-Willows, between Roby and Huyton
• New capacity on routes through the Pennines between Leeds, Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Manchester
• New passing tracks on the line between Sheffield and Manchester, at Chinley, Grindleford and Dore

Electrification

A number of electrification projects for rail lines out of Manchester are underway, or have been approved.^[29] While formally independent of the Northern Hub scheme, they directly complement it:

• Manchester to Liverpool Line: Manchester to Newton-le-Willows was completed in December 2013 and onwards to Liverpool should have been completed by December 2014 - originally announced by the Department of Transport in July 2009.^[30][31] The 32-mile line between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria via Huyton and Newton Le-Willows currently has a maximum permitted speed of 75 mph. Following electrification and the addition of Class 319s, trains will be able to run at 90 mph cutting journey times from 47 minutes to 32 minutes. The Manchester to Newton-le-Willows section was completed on 17 July 2013 marked by a small ceremony at Eccles station at which the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt. Hon. Patrick McLoughlin MP, was present. Electrified Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow services have been running since the timetable change in December 2013. Due to several delays the original target for the remaining section from Earlestown to Liverpool was missed but electric train services commenced in March 2015, initially between Liverpool and Manchester Airport.
• Liverpool to Wigan Line This is a section of part two of the Northern Hub project. The Liverpool to Wigan line from its junction at Huyton is also to be electrified, providing a second, direct, connection to the WCML at Ince Moss Junction via St. Helens Central. Originally intended to be operational by December 2014, due to delays the target has been missed, but the vast majority of masts and wiring is in place between Huyton Junction and Ince Moss Junction. Electrification completion is expected during 2015.
• Manchester to Preston Line (via Bolton): To be completed by December 2016.^[29][30] - electrification announced in December 2009. Preparatory work on bridges and tunnels will commence in 2014 and installation of overhead lines will begin shortly afterwards.
• Preston to Blackpool North: To be completed by May 2016^[29][32] - an extension of the Manchester to Preston Line, this will provide an electrified route from Blackpool to Manchester and the West Coast Main Line
• Huddersfield Line (also known as Manchester to Leeds and York via Stalybridge): Expected to be carried out between 2016 and 2018.^[29][33] Electrification announced in November 2011.

Future

A growing consensus has been reached that, following Crossrail and High Speed 2, the next key infrastructure requirement is a continuation of the Northern Hub which has been described as 'incremental'. David Higgins, chairman of the HS2, stated in March 2014 that the Northern Hub scheme is incremental and the benefits of the High Speed 2 will not be fully felt if rail links between Northern cities are not improved.^[34] In June 2014, Chancellor of the Exchequer stated his vision to see improved transport links between Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds to increase economic productivity.^[35] Osborne's proposals were nicknamed 'Crossrail of the North' and 'High Speed 3'.

References

External links

• Northern Hub website