Woodhead tunnels will not be reopened for rail use

[rillington]

Last month the Government announced it would not be buying the two Victorian Woodhead tunnels from National Grid.

National Grid owns all three tunnels and has recently finished moving the cables, which form part of the Stalybridge to Thorpe Marsh route, from one of the old Victorian tunnels to the tunnel built in the 1950s. The two Victorian tunnels will now be sealed.

Campaigners for the reopening of the Woodhead route hoped the Government might buy the tunnels from National Grid but the Government said last month that it will not do so thereby making it much harder to reopen the line in the future, stating that building a brand new tunnel would be a better option should the line ever be reopened.

Given that most of us are also railway enthusiasts I'm wondering what people's views are on this, and below is a link to the news story about this decision.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/woodhead-rail-tunnels-linking-manchester-6274770

[yv47r]

Well given that there are still two main routes across the Pennines then as it stands things are okay but capacity improvements will need to be added to the Hope Valley and Diggle routes and these are already both in the planning as part of Network Rail's future policies. So for the Hope Valley this current I believe includes double-tracking the Dore station area and curve, reinstating a loop at Bamford I think. I believe additional capacity could be introduced between New Mills South Jnc and Chinley by reinstating a single line to allow up freight trains to be routed out of the way of the passenger services towards Sheffield. The original double-track slow lines alignment is largely intact and this would allow the empty stone hopper trains to be kept out of the way. A recent project has seen the previously single-lead Chinley South Jnc on the frieght-only line to Buxton to be altered so that this no longer causes a bottleneck for trains heading up towards Peak Forest.

On the Diggle line the future electrification of the Manchester to Leeds line (Guide Bridge/Man Victoria) will need some additional capacity perhaps by extending the loops on either side of the Standedge tunnels.

As for Woodhead I would agree that any future railway would be best in a totally new tunnel perhaps to the south of the original and replacement tunnel. Any new tunnel could be built to true Berne gauge and maybe two single bores with cross chambers ala Channel Tunnel to permit faster train speeds. The traditional freight traffic that was the backbone of the original Woodhead tunnels has long since gone and any remaining trans-Pennine freight flows are medium distance ones like the Peak District stone and cement to Leeds/Dewsbury and the domestic refuse trains from Greater Manchester to Scunthorpe area. In time the refuse trains will switch to run to Runcorn instead.

Cheers Paul

[rillington]

Thanks for the reply Paul.

I can understand the arguement for a new tunnel should the Woodhead line be considered for re-opening as any new tunnel would be built to modern standards but if the line had not been closed in first place then the 1953 tunnel would almost certainly still be in use and it would have made a handy diversion when things like engineering work is taking place, as I'm sure it did for the eleven years between closure to passengers and the final closure of the line in 1981.

[yv47r]

Yes after the regular passenger services ended on the Woodhead route the line was used for diversions off the Hope Valley route and also footex trains running to Wadesley Bridge. Only the Merry-Go-Round coal traffic to Fiddler's Ferry power station, some through steel traffic plus wagonload traffic to and from the Manchester area provided the regular traffic for the line and this was not really enough to keep the line open. There are a whole load of other factors that came into play around making the decision to close the line. A knock-on effect of the closure of the Woodhead route was the closure of related lines like Godley to Apethorne Jnc and Woodley to Cheadle Jnc via Stockport Edgeley and later on the Skelton Jnc to Warrington Latchford line over the Manchester Ship Canal. The line from Woodley was closed as a through line and cut back to serve the stone terminal at Stockport Portwood and later cut further to Bredbury only.

So there would need to be an awful lot of regular high-tonnage traffic to justify re-opening any form of Woodhead route in the future.

Cheers Paul

[rillington]

I wouldn't disagree with that view Paul. However it's difficult to disagree with the view that putting the electric cables in the 1953 tunnel makes the route much more expensive and difficult to re-open.

We have to remember that the line was closed at a time when the railways in this country weren't in the positive state that they are today - the 1980s nearly saw the Settle and Carlisle closed. However, it was kept open and it's become a very successful line and I'm sure the Woodhead route would been a similarly successful line had it remained open.