Hope Valley Line

Hope Valley Line
A couple of Northern Rail Pacers at Hathersage
Overview
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	North West England Yorkshire and the Humber
Termini	Manchester Piccadilly Sheffield
Operation
Opened	1894
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	East Midlands Trains Northern TransPennine Express
Depot(s)	Longsight
Technical
Number of tracks	Two
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV 50Hz AC OHLE (Western part)
Operating speed	90 miles per hour (140 km/h) maximum
Route map

Hope Valley Line
Legend
Manchester Lines to Salford Manchester Piccadilly River Medlock to Manchester Airport Levenshulme Ardwick Heaton Chapel Ashburys Belle Vue Gorton Ryder Brow Fairfield First site 1841–1892 Reddish North Fairfield Reddish South Denton River Mersey Guide Bridge Stockport Stockport to Stalybridge Line to Stalybridge Brinnington River Tame Bredbury Peak Forest Canal Mid-Cheshire Line Glossop Line to Hadfield and Glossop West Coast Main Line Hyde North Davenport Hyde Central Woodsmoor Woodley Hazel Grove Romiley to Mid-Cheshire Line (freight only) Rose Hill MarpleMB&MR Buxton Line River Etherow Disley Tunnel Peak Forest Canal Macclesfield Canal Peak Forest Canal Marple River Goyt River Goyt Strines New Mills Central Hayfield branch Chinley Buxton Line (freight only) Cowburn Tunnel Edale Earles Sidings Hope River Derwent Bamford Hathersage Grindleford 6230 yd 5697 m Totley Tunnel Freight line to MML Dore and Totley Midland Main Line Sheffield

The Hope Valley Line is a trans-Pennine railway line in England, linking Sheffield with Manchester. It was completed in 1894.

From Sheffield, trains head down the Midland Main Line through the south west of the city to Dore and Totley, where the Hope Valley Line branches off to run through the Totley Tunnel (the fourth-longest in England).

It emerges in the Hope Valley area of Derbyshire, where it passes through the railway stations of Grindleford, Hathersage, Bamford, Hope, and Edale before entering the two-mile-long Cowburn Tunnel.

From the western portal of the tunnel, the line runs through Chinley, then splits. The northern branch runs via New Mills toward Manchester Piccadilly. The southern branch passes through the Disley Tunnel before merging with the Buxton line and then heading to Stockport to join the main line to Manchester.

Passenger services on the line are currently operated by Northern (previously Northern Rail and First North Western), East Midlands Trains (previously Central Trains) and TransPennine Express (previously First TransPennine Express and Arriva Trains Northern).

History

Sheffield and Midland Joint Section

Sketch map of Midland Railway lines into Manchester

This section was built by the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee as part of the Midland Railway's drive to reach Manchester with its line from London via Ambergate and Millers Dale. Initially, in 1867, it joined the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway at Hyde Junction, running into Manchester London Road, but in 1875 a more direct route was built through Bredbury. When Manchester Central was opened by the Cheshire Lines Committee, a new line was built through Heaton Mersey. This third route was closed along with Manchester Central, apart from the section through Disley Tunnel to Hazel Grove, where it now joins the old LNWR line into Stockport.

Dore and Chinley

Sketch map of Dore and Chinley Line

In 1872, the Midland Railway's only route from Sheffield to Manchester was via Ambergate. It had originally proposed a line to run from Dore to Hassop meeting its extension from Rowsley to Buxton. However, the "Dore and Chinley Railway" was floated independently in 1872, and unsuccessfully, until the Midland took an interest, since it would provide a more direct route, connecting through Chinley into Manchester. The line was authorised in 1884 and work began in 1888.

The 21-mile (34 km) line took six years to build. The terrain through Hope Valley and Edale was easy enough by Midland standards, but at each end there were formidable obstacles, negotiated by means of the Totley and Cowburn Tunnels.

Recent history

At the time of the Beeching review, the line was running in competition with the recently modernised, more direct and faster route through the Woodhead Tunnel, and its closure was suggested. On appeal, British Rail, being required to keep the Hope Valley line open to passenger traffic, instead shut the Woodhead route to passengers (and then subsequently to freight).

Metrolink proposals

In the early 1980s, proposals were put forward to convert the Piccadilly-Belle Vue-Rose Hill/Marple section of the Hope Valley Line to light rail operation for the proposed Manchester Metrolink system. While construction of Metrolink went ahead, the Hope Valley line was not included in the system completed in 1992.^[1] When in 2000, proposals for a large-scale extension of Metrolink were announced by the government, these still did not include conversion of the Hope Valley line; but subsequently, planning documents from Network Rail and from the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority have suggested that this route might be appropriate for tram-train operation, and as such it was suggested to the Department for Transport as a possible location for a national tram-train pilot.

Plans

Nottinghamshire County Council and the Department for Transport are investigating the possibility of adding another service that does not call at Sheffield in order to improve the journey time between Nottingham and Manchester. It currently takes 115 minutes, but the council believes it could be cut to 90 minutes. Improvements to allow faster speeds on a 2.5-mile stretch near Stockport could also shave off 2–3 minutes.^[2]

Network Rail, in partnership with South Yorkshire ITA, will redouble the track between Dore Station Junction and Dore West Junction, at an estimated cost of £15 million. This costing is based on four additional vehicles in traffic to deliver the option, however, this will depend on vehicle allocation through the DfT rolling stock plan. This work will be programmed for between 2009 and 2016, subject to funding, is conjunction with signalling renewals in the Dore/Totley Tunnel area.

Other proposals include freight loops in the Hope and Grindleford areas, again, subject to funding, in order to fit in either a peak-busting, or all-day (07:00–19:00) hourly Manchester - Sheffield via New Mills Central service, by extending an existing Manchester - New Mills Central service.^[3] It is hoped to start work in 2017 and have extra services running in 2018.^[4]

Freight

Over a million tons of cement joins the line at Earle's Sidings at Hope.^[5]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hope Valley Line.

Route map: Bing / Google

Railway lines in the North West
Primary to London	West Coast Main Line
Other	Inter-regional Buxton line Calder Valley line Chester–Manchester line Crewe–Derby line Glossop line Hope Valley line Huddersfield line Leeds–Morecambe line Mid-Cheshire line Morecambe branch line Ribble Valley line Stafford–Manchester line Tyne Valley line Intra-regional Blackpool branch lines Borderlands Line Crewe–Manchester line Cumbrian Coast line East Lancashire line Ellesmere Port–Warrington line Furness line Kirkby branch line Liverpool–Manchester lines Liverpool–Wigan line Manchester–Preston line Manchester–Southport line Northern Line (Merseyrail) Ormskirk branch line Settle–Carlisle line Stockport–Stalybridge line Styal line Windermere branch line Wirral line
Heritage	East Lancashire Railway Eden Valley Railway Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway Ribble Steam Railway

Railway lines in Yorkshire and the Humber
Primary	To London East Coast Main Line Midland Main Line To Exeter Cross Country Route
Others	Inter-regional Hallam Line Hope Valley Line Leeds to Morecambe Line Doncaster to Lincoln Line Sheffield to Lincoln Line Settle–Carlisle Line Intra-regional Airedale Line Askern Branch Line Barton Line Calder Valley Line Dearne Valley Line Esk Valley Line Harrogate Line Huddersfield Line Leeds-Bradford Lines Leeds-Northallerton Railway Northallerton–Eaglescliffe Line Penistone Line Pontefract Line Selby Diversion Selby Line South Humberside Main Line Swinton to Doncaster Wakefield Line Wharfedale Line Hull to Scarborough York to Scarborough
Defunct	Barnsley-Doncaster Brockholes-Holmfirth Dearne Valley Railway Gilling and Pickering Harrogate-Church Fenton Hull-Barnsley (Cudworth) Hull and Holderness Hull and Hornsea Knaresborough-York Leeds-Harrogate Malton-Driffield Market Weighton-Driffield Middlesbrough-Guisborough Middlesbrough-Guisborough-Normanby Huddersfield-Bradford Lockwood-Meltham Nunthorpe–Battersby Otley-Ilkley Pilmoor-Knaresborough Queensbury lines Rosedale Railway Scarborough-Whitby Seamer-Pickering Selby-Driffield Selby-Goole Shipley Windhill Line Sowerby Bridge-Rishworth Skipton-Grassington Skipton-Ilkley Thirsk and Malton Line Wetherby-Cross Gates(Leeds) Whiby-Loftus Woodhead Line York-Market Weighton-Beverley York-York (Foss Island)
Heritage	Derwent Valley Light Railway Elsecar Heritage Railway Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Middleton Railway North Bay Railway North Yorkshire Moors Railway Wensleydale Railway
Light Railways	Nidd Valley Light Railway North Holderness Light Railway Sand Hutton Light Railway