Earlier this month, Network Rail engineers worked around the clock for nine days to make major upgrades to the Manchester to Sheffield rail line as part of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade.
The work took place from Saturday, 16 to Sunday, 24 March in the Dore & Totley area.
Work completed during this period included:
- Completing an extension to the Dore South Curve and improving the tracks at Grindleford.
- Connecting a new second platform at Dore & Totley station to the existing platform via an accessible footbridge.
- Extending the existing platform so that longer trains will be able to stop there.
- Installing a new cutting-edge signalling system to replace the existing mechanical signalling. The new system will be controlled by the Rail Operating Centre (ROC) at York and improve the reliability of services on the line.
The improvements have doubled the number of tracks at Dore & Totley to increase capacity on the line, while other improvements being carried out as part of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade will remove a number of bottlenecks on the line so that passenger trains are not delayed by slower freight.
Some further tasks still need to be completed at Dore & Totley station, including commissioning the new lifts to make the station fully accessible.
We're delighted to have made the final step in the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade project, bringing our passengers the railway they deserve.
This final phase of upgrades mean customers will have a faster, more reliable, accessible railway between Manchester and Sheffield.
On behalf of the entire project team, I d like to extend my thanks to all passengers and residents across the Hope Valley line for their patience and understanding.
The Hope Valley Railway Upgrade will remove several bottlenecks between Manchester and Sheffield to allow passenger trains to overtake slower freight trains along the line.
Ben Shaw, Sponsor of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade
I'd like to thank our customers for their patience whilst we were putting the finishing touches on the brand new second platform at Dore & Totley.
The second platform and track through the station will bring much-needed improvements, providing for extra capacity in the future with better train speeds and enhanced reliability on this key section of our route.
Kerry Peters, Regional Director for Northern
We'd like to thank everyone involved in the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade for their hard work and diligence as this vital project nears completion. The upgrades on the Hope Valley line will improve the journeys of our customers travelling between Manchester and Sheffield for years to come.
We'd also like to thank our customers for their patience and cooperation whilst these major improvement works took place over the past nine days.
Chris Nutton, Major Projects Director at TransPennine Express
It’s a bit short sighted not to reinstate the other two platforms at D & T so that passengers from that area can catch the train to Chesterfield and Nottingham without having to head north and change trains first.
How do wheelchair users get to Manchester as the lifts are not commissioned? Travel to Sheffield to then get back through Dore and Totley Station. You couldn’t make it up!
So how do wheelchair passengers get to Manchester whilst the lifts are commissioned?
Take a train to Sheffield to then go back through Dore Station and on to Manchester?
Totally incorrect. The key issue was always trying to fit 2 way increased passenger traffic into a single platform alongside heavy freight trying to turn south on a loop that was too short to hold it.
Yes an extra line or 2 into Sheffield would help ( though part is built on), but pathing isn’t a big issue on that section as such, just waiting to join it if (as usual) things were out of synch because of the bottleneck.
As to the other post re heading south, for those of us in the area Dronfield provides a handy station for local journeys and Chesterfield for the longer stuff.
Ironic that all this money has to be spent to restore facilities that had existed for decades before BR, in its wisdom, removed them to reduce track layouts – typically in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the panel signal boxes were being introduced. The Western Region were particularly zealous in doing this e.g Swindon to Kemble, building in bottlenecks that now need reversing as traffic grows. Another favourite was to create single lead junctions, to replace double junctions. While it cut down on diamond flat crossings, it prevents parallel moves, which is what had been in place at Dore for the last 40 + years. A good example is Haughley Junction near Stowmarket, still restricting capacity for intermodal trains from Felixstowe to the Midlands.. Other economy schemes on the WR saw the Oxford to Worcester line with long single line sections and the Salisbury to Exeter line. It has left a restrictive legacy that makes it difficult to path extra trains or open new stations.
Even with the Dore improvements, at the western end of the Sheffield to Manchester route, there is a single line chord from the old Midland route to the LNER Buxton line by which it reaches Stockport, so capacity is still strangled and increasing frequency will be difficult without further expensive improvements.
Similar cost cutting infrastructure reductions must have been actioned thousands of times across the network by a cash strapped nationalised industry starved of investment by an unsupportive Govt. Hardly BR management’s fault. Nobody anctipated a doubling of passenger journeys since and it will take decades to put that infrastructure back into place to create a fit for purpose railway….
Great effort to finish work on time. But day 1, no lift, passengers struggling up sleep stairs with heavy luggage, on what had previously been a totally level-access station. Ah, if only rail managers cared about passengers…..
That Hazel Grove chord is not a bottleneck as the local traffic goes via New Mills Central and the freight via various routes. The big bottleneck at that end is Manchester Picc to Deansgate etc.
A new line has been put in at the Dore South Curve to stop the delays to the passenger trains, so a faster more reliable service is now available.
Pity platforms 3 and 4 on the mainline haven’t been rebuilt! It must be so infuriating for people at Dore & Totley to have to go to Sheffield to then get a train to Chesterfield or further south!
It’s not a new platform. It’s a replacement platform.
This station uses to have four platforms.
The replacement platform will do absolutely nothing to prevent the bottleneck at the junction.
The problem is that the line to Manchester is nothing more than a branch line off the main line. Until four lines are restored into Sheffield Station then the bottleneck at dore will always remain.
Even with the replacement platform trains will still have to wait to pull on to the mainline.
This platform is a total waste of money.
The bottleneck was created when the four lines into Sheffield were cut down to two.
Fix the problem and stop wasting public money and creating work.