Rail Minister Huw Merriman is visiting Dore & Totley station in Yorkshire today, Monday 8 April, to mark the completion of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade.
At Dore & Totley, the Minister will officially open the station's second platform. It is the first time since the 1980s that the station has had two platforms and has been constructed to be fully accessible.
A fully accessible footbridge with lifts at both ends has been installed to connect the new platform 2 with the existing platform 1, which has also been extended to accommodate longer trains with six carriages.
The £150m Hope Valley Upgrade programme began in the spring of 2021 since when there have been significant improvements to the line between Manchester and Sheffield.
As well as Dore & Totley's new platform, other improvements included:
- Upgrading signalling along the line to improve reliability,
- Replacing a foot crossing at Hathersage West with a new overbridge to improve safety.
- Installing a 1 km loop between Bamford and Hathersage to remove a bottleneck so that faster services can overtake slower trains.
- Installing additional tracks south of Dore & Totley to relieve a longstanding freight train bottleneck.
The final parts of the work took place from 16 to 25 March when the line was closed so that the last parts of the track could be laid, drainage works could be finished, and the remaining work at Dore & Totley station could be completed.
The Hope Valley Railway Upgrade has been delivered as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade in conjunction with StoryVolker JV.
I am delighted to be in Sheffield today to mark the completion of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade – another project delivered which demonstrates our continued commitment to improving transport in the North of England.
This Government funded scheme means passengers will now benefit from improved reliability and accessibility when travelling between Sheffield and Manchester.
The upgrade is just one of hundreds we're delivering, with more to come as part of our Network North plan made possible by reallocated HS2 funding – carrying out even further upgrades on this vital line, including electrification, to cut journey times and improve capacity for thousands of passengers.
Rail Minister Huw Merriman
The completion of the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade is a great step for train travel in the North, and I'm thrilled to be able to make it official alongside the Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, at Dore & Totley today.
After three years of hard work and planning, passengers between Manchester and Sheffield can enjoy a much-improved railway
Neil Holm, Managing Director of Transpennine Railway Upgrade
We're delighted to be able to invite the Rail Minister to Dore & Totley to celebrate the completion of the programme.
The Hope Valley Railway Upgrade team worked tirelessly to deliver these upgrades, that will ensure improved rail services between Manchester and Sheffield.
I'd like to thank all of our passengers and residents along the route for their patience and support as we carried out these essential upgrades.
Ben Shaw, Sponsor for the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade
So when is Electrification of the line to start and more importantly when it is to be completed? … Will it be completed before or after Electrification of the Midland Main Line reaches Sheffield given that is not exactly being completed at any great rate of Knots.. Will the slow approaches to Hazel Grove be resolved ?.. Should be Loads of money available by this government now they have pruned HS2 back
Whilst the doubling of the line at Dore will help, the bulk of the route is controlled by absolute block signalling, which will stifle most of the upgrades. Current government flyers state they are going to electrify the route, which shows a complete lack of understanding as to the challenges that would bring and would probably be towards the back of the queue of the Network Rail wishlist. There is also the ongoing landslip at New Mills Central to sort out first.
He was careful with his choice of words. He clearly knows the MML he was standing beside won’t be electrified before 2035 at the current rate of progress. He also knows the business case for electrifying the Hope Valley line will stack up badly compared with other schemes in the pipeline. That doesn’t stop it being in the pipeline though! Sadly that means diversion of effort into planning that could be expended on more realistic schemes capable of more immediate introduction.
The Hope Valley scheme has evolved over 25 years since redoubling at Dore was first being planned. Those early plans were on the walls of Railtrack’s Manchester offices soon after they were hived off from BR! How much must have been spent since on updates and redesigns to see the current work completed?
My friend Stephen Briscoe from Hathersage campaigned for years to improve passenger services in the Hope Valley, through the HVRUG. Sadly, no longer with us to see 25 years of work in the planning come to fruition.