I'd say that is good progress; all the main steelwork is now up, SPS is starting to appear, new troughing routes have been laid and new ancillary civils work (troughing, Location Cabinet (LOC) installation, Under Track Crossing (UTX) installation etc.) looks near-enough complete. I'd say cantilevers and wires won't be too far off now.
Also there’s all of the new AC-immune signals.
Not to mention commissioning of all the associated cabinets and interlocking.
And the upgraded power feeding arrangements for the ECML junction.
Commenting on this an earlier comments: that's encouraging. The ordinary layman has little idea of these largely invisible enhancements.
There will be some very substantial realignment around Neville Hill to substantially increase the linespeed there and provide more space for Neville Hill to expand. See 22:40 of this video:
Or AC-immune AWS magnets.
AIUI, the route from Man Vic to Standedge Tunnel W will be using Series 2 (i.e. Bonomi) equipment, with Standedge Tunnel E to Huddersfield, Huddersfield to Leeds, Leeds to Micklefield & Micklefield to Church Fenton using SICAT equipment as per York - Church Fenton.
Interestingly everyone seems to be very tight lipped as to what exactly will happen at Church Fenton in respect of the possibility of using the intended HS2 alignment to bypass the curve which is supposedly paramount to maintaining line speeds and reducing journey times. A new highway is being built in order to remove the level crossing at Rose lane and an additional line from the station up to Poulters crossing is shown on the maps at a recent meeting at Church Fenton. Land owners have been told that the original HS2 route will continue to be safe guarded but trying to get answers as to how long and what the plans are is proving difficult to say the least.
Interesting, I get the impression that the NWEP team and contractors have been moved over to TRU west. Is this correct?
It wouldn't surprise me if they had; Amey were the last contractor on the route (after Balfour Beatty and Carillion).
Apart from a general commitment to "full TPU electrification" in the Integrated Rail Plan, there are no details of how/when the Stalybridge-Huddersfield section will be wired.
These are all engineering challenges no doubt, but at the end of the day that's what engineers are paid to sort out. Not wishing to be overly blasé but we've been electrifying railways for over a hundred years.
The new NPR line from Marsden to Piccadilly will bypass Stalybridge. With 6tph of fast Leeds to Manchester services routed that way, it seems likely that all residual passenger trains on the old line will call at Stalybridge, whether heading to Piccadilly or Victoria.
And Standedge too, ISTR. I still wonder how the post-IRP NPR will affect Huddersfield; while I imagine that Marsden - Hudds will go 4-track to separate the fast & slow services, the problem of what to do on the approach to the west remains as I think Gledholt & Hudds Tunnels will remain as-is.
The IPR document said 3 or 4 track. I inferred it will be long 3rd track loops, otherwise you have to take out the speed increases that were achieved by slewing two tracks around on an old 4 track trackbed. I'm assuming old 4 track standards don't really allow for 4 track now, especially considering the engineering and slope challenges.
Is this Huddersfield to Marsden capacity enhancement within the scope of TRU (Option G?), or is it a NPR add-on?
It would make sense to do them as part of the NPR planning. If there's only space for three tracks in places between Marsden and Huddersfield, then it would make sense for one bore of the new NPR tunnel to be extended all the way to Huddersfield. Is there scope to bring it up to the surface alongside the other tunnel portals immediately to the south of Huddersfield throat? That would give 4 tracks all the way to Dewsbury.
Thought Huddersfield was outside the scope of NPR
The switches and crossings at station throat at that end is partially inside Huddersfield tunnel, particularly the crossover from the Up main to the Penistone line. Whilst the Sheffield line can be disregarded in NPR terms, integrating a quasi-high-speed line into what will be fast line platforms (current 1 & 4, future 2 & 3) underneath the bus station/ring road would be very tricky.