Service improvements made possible by reinstating Castleford platform 2

[LMS 4F]

I walked through the Cas underpass this morning and both the slopes have been resurfaced with new flagstones. No sign of any work on Platform 2 or any access to that side. Work on the new buildings on Platform 1 is still not finished.

 

[YorksLad12]

If any actual work starts on P2 and access to it, the local councillors will organise a street party!

 

[yorksrob]

Which would make a great deal of sense. At some point squeezing more an more trains through Leeds willl prove impossible and an alternative route would take some of the pressure off as well as offering new journey opportunities. Given that much of the infrastructure is already in place, I would just get on with it. Which particular parts of the rail industry are sitting in the way of making this happen ?

I don't know, but connections onto the Hallam line from York are very poor in the evening.

 

[4-SUB 4732]

Just a quick one, is anybody aware of the state of plans for TPE to extend the Manchester to Huddersfield stopper as far as Castleford (as it is hourly anyway), replacing Northern?

TIA.

 

[Glenn1969]

I don't think there were ever plans for TPE to serve Castleford. Know something was said about Wakefield but that was an additional service and pre Covid

 

[yorksrob]

I must admit, I wasn't aware of this proposal.

Certainly the Northern Huddersfield - Cass has been extremely infrequent ever since the first lockdown.

 

[YorksLad12]

I think the TPE extension from Hudds to Kirkgate was for operational reasons, especially when Hudds is being rebuilt. It's not meant as a permanent thing. Also, there might be timing issues with any eastern extension from Huddersfield, given that Northern extends to Castleford because it can't do the Hudds-Kirkgate run with only one unit.

Plus: you know that if TPE reaches Castleford, the cry will go up "why can't you carry on through to York?"

 

[CommuterPigeon]

I believe TPE had hoped to extend the Huddersfield services through to Wakefield Kirkgate, possibly from May 21 but not sure if Covid has put at stop to that.

I have heard they have aspirations to extend it through to York via Castleford to help maintain route knowledge that way however with capacity issues and the ECML timetable re-write it received some concerns from other parties so not sure if it will ever see the light of day.

 

[yorksrob]

Plus: you know that if TPE reaches Castleford, the cry will go up "why can't you carry on through to York?"

It's about time something did !

 

[Fokx]

I don’t believe there was ever the plan to send the Manchester stopper to Castleford?

There was intentions to send the Manchester to Huddersfield to Wakefield Kirkgate, allowing the LNER Huddersfield to London service to use 4a/4b without the stopper having to perform shunt manoeuvres for the two trips, but then Covid-19 happened and the plans to rebuild the station have also been put forward so it’s something that may no longer happen

 

[YorksLad12]

I don’t believe there was ever the plan to send the Manchester stopper to Castleford?

There was intentions to send the Manchester to Huddersfield to Wakefield Kirkgate, allowing the LNER Huddersfield to London service to use 4a/4b without the stopper having to perform shunt manoeuvres every trip, but then Covid-19 happened and the plans to rebuild the station have also been put forward so it’s something that may no longer happen

LNER's Huddersfield extension would have been one early morning and one late-evening journey, so wouldn't have interfered with the TPE stopper to Manchester.

 

[Glenn1969]

Think the Huddersfield LNER is irrelevant in this discussion. It was only planned to be one per day and all stoppers were supposed to extend to Wakefield

 

[BHXDMT]

I'm pretty sure it was because both the Manchester-Huddersfield and Leeds-Huddersfield services were supposed to be 6 car services going forward, meaning they couldn't both use Platform 4 at the same time. It was certainly to do with train lengths and platform availability anyway. They were initially showing in the schedules from Dec 2019 which is when it should've started, that was pushed to May 2020 and then Covid happened..

 

[Fokx]

Yes the planned extension to Wakefield was to do with using 6 carriages on both stoppers due to capacity demand with them remaining hourly and the layover required for the Leeds stopper which give or take is currently around 25 minutes at Huddersfield conflicting with the Manchester pathing.

This is why during the initial lockdown the services ran ECS to/from Marsden to make space available for the Manchester stopper before reverting to 3 car and platform 6 again.

 

[Leeds1970]

have all the 'local stations between Leeds and Stalybridge been extended ? (ive not been on that route for a while) 2x142 or 2x150 was tight on a lot of the platforms so a 6 car 185's would not fit and there would be little point in 'locking 3 coaches out of use

 

[YorksLad12]

have all the 'local stations between Leeds and Stalybridge been extended ? (ive not been on that route for a while) 2x142 or 2x150 was tight on a lot of the platforms so a 6 car 185's would not fit and there would be little point in 'locking 3 coaches out of use

From memory, I'm sure I read about work at Marsden and Slaithwaite; Deighton and Cottingley are longer (different shade of B&Q decking); not sure on the others. I would be taking a run out to Huddersfield around now, were it not for Covid-19 and my reason for going there being shut.

 

[Fokx]

All of the stations on both stopper routes can accommodate atleast 4 carriages now with C-ASDO working.

Some stations such as Greenfield can accommodate 5 carriages if the first class coach (51 car) is at the front of the rear train due to the position of the C-ASDO beacon.

If there is a fault with the beacon or with the train, the rear set will be locked out of use using unit door blocking (UDB) and effectively run as a 3 car

 

[Spartacus]

It sounds like there may be plans to have shuttles between Leeds and Castleford, with TPE dropping people off there rather than buses between Leeds and York/Huddersfield depending on where works are going on at the time.

 

[59CosG95]

It sounds like there may be plans to have shuttles between Leeds and Castleford with TPE dropping people off there rather than buses between Leeds and York/Huddersfield depending on where works are going on at the time.

It'd certainly help with works between Leeds & Church Fenton, but I'm not sure how Castleford would help works between Leeds & Ravensthorpe in isolation.

 

[The exile]

It'd certainly help with works between Leeds & Church Fenton, but I'm not sure how Castleford would help works between Leeds & Ravensthorpe in isolation.

run Church Fenton - Castleford - Kirkgate - Healey Mills - Mirfield.

 

[59CosG95]

run Church Fenton - Castleford - Kirkgate - Healey Mills - Mirfield.

Ahh yes, that makes sense if the Leeds - Castleford shuttles connect to it.