Delight at news of rail upgrade (From York Press)
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Delight at news of rail upgrade
9:57am Tuesday 17th July 2012 in News
By Dan Bean, dan.bean@thepress.co.uk
MILLIONS of commuters will benefit from the new investment in railways in York, Selby and North Yorkshire, it has been claimed.
Transport Secretary Justine Greening yesterday announced the £9 billion upgrade, which she said would deliver “an affordable, reliable and fast-moving railway network”, which would help secure prosperity in the North East for decades.
The plan, set to run between 2014 and 2019, could see upgrades to the East Coast line from London to Leeds and Newcastle through York, and the electrification of the Micklefield to Selby line.
York council leader James Alexander, said: “The £9 billion railway announcement is a huge boost for York. As the rail gateway to the North of England and the third fastest growing city in the north, an investment of this scale will provide millions of commuters with better links, faster journeys and more train capacity on the East Coast Main line between London, York and Newcastle.”
Coun Alexander also said the electrification across the TransPennine line would mean significant improvements on the route between York and Manchester once completed in 2018.
Former council leader Andrew Waller , who lobbied for the investment on behalf of the city in his time at City of York Council , said: “The announcement on investment in rail infrastructure is welcome, especially for the classic East Coast mainline and, by the sounds of it, the electrification of the spur.
“I would point out that this has taken some years of lobbying with Ministers to make the point, and ensuring that when I was leader that there was always reference to the electrification of the Leeds York route with Network Rail managers.”
Nigel Adams , MP for Selby and Ainsty, yesterday spoke to the House of Commons on the subject, and welcomed the announcement that the line between Micklefield and Selby would be electrified, with improvements and investments due within the next seven years.
He said: “It has huge knock-on benefits for commuters and traders in the district. The announcement is a great signal for Selby.
“It’s a huge boost for the district. Getting electrification all the way to Selby is something I have been calling for ever since I was elected, and it seems our meeting with rail minister Theresa Villiers paid off. I’m delighted with the announcement.”
Some of the funding for the upgrades comes from fare increases in 2010.
Comments(7)
the butler
says...
10:13pm Tue 17 Jul 12
bloodaxe
says...
11:21pm Tue 17 Jul 12
Barfield24 wrote:Well, as the previous government put "in train" many of these proposals in the first place and as the Labour Party has been calling for this sort of investment during the current parliament then it's hard to see which possible future administration you might have in mind as a likely curtailer of this initiative. As for York to Beverley, forget it.
Just remember when all this delight dies down, that these imporvements will not start till 2014, at the earliest, and the next government could curtail all the plans.
Would have been nice to see forward and proactive thinking adn the line from Beverly to York reinstated!....
pedalling paul
says...
11:52am Wed 18 Jul 12
Capt. Dobie
says...
1:43pm Wed 18 Jul 12
How? Unless there are more trains and faster trains, it's just a load of pylons and cables that will get nicked by metal thieves.
harrumph.
Capt. Dobie
says...
1:44pm Wed 18 Jul 12
How? Unless there are more trains and faster trains, it's just a load of pylons and cables that will get nicked by metal thieves.
harrumph.
Magicman!
says...
2:40am Fri 20 Jul 12
Capt. Dobie wrote:The current electrification going on to connect Manchester with the West Coast main Line to Scotland has seen 10 class 350 trains ordered for Transpennine Express who runs the manchester-scotland services - these electric trains have 4 coaches instead of the current 3, with some peak time services likely using double units. This work alone, which will be in place for the May 2014 timetable change, will cascade 10 class 185 diesel trains to the rest of the TPE network - and most of these will benefit York, either through doubling up busy trains or by means of the new "4th path". The 4th path is a new service going from Newcastle via York, Leeds and Huddersfield to Liverpool via Manchester Victoria, and going through Victoria chops off almost half an hour off the current York-Liverpool journey time. Now that is happening as a result of electrification on the wrong side of the hills....
"Coun Alexander also said the electrification across the TransPennine line would mean significant improvements on the route between York and Manchester once completed in 2018."
How? Unless there are more trains and faster trains, it's just a load of pylons and cables that will get nicked by metal thieves.
harrumph.
Once the electrification gets to the Transpennine line itself we will be seeing bigger trains, and the Northern Hub project will see all Transpennine trains going through Manchester Victoria thus speeding up services (york to manchester will be roughly 60 minutes instead of the current 80-90), and services from/to North Wales will be extended to serve Bradford and possibly further such as Leeds and maybe even York. The current york-blackpool will extend to serve Scarborough instead of a Transpennine service (as s'bro will remain diesel operated) which will instead go to Newcastle - the s'bro to blackpool will go from york to leeds stopping only at garforth, thus adding another fast york-leeds service in to give about 6 trains per hour fast between the two cities. The trains for the electric Transpennine lines has not yet been decided, but will probably be either 4 or 5 coach class 380's or coaching stock similar to that used by East Coast with an electric loco on the front.
Barfield24 says...
11:58am Tue 17 Jul 12
Would have been nice to see forward and proactive thinking adn the line from Beverly to York reinstated!....