Further to Roger Backhouse and Lisa Dunster’s excellent letters about the digital signalling proposed for TransPennine, I would like to add a further problem: lack of infrastructure.
Between the 1960s and 1980s most of the four-track sections and passing loops were removed from this route.
It used to be four tracks from Ravensthorpe to Diggle and from Guide Bridge to Ardwick. There also used to be through lines at Cross Gates and this is where the problem is.
Digital signalling is no good if the train in front is an all-stations stopping service and an express train is behind.
I would suggest that the above-mentioned infrastructure is re-instated along with a short extension from Ravensthorpe to Dewsbury before any digital signalling is installed otherwise it will be a complete waste of money.
Like Lisa Dunster I also worked on this route for many years and have seen many of the problems first hand.
Ian Foster,
Hawthorne Avenue, Haxby, York
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