Trafford Bypass Line; CLC Warrington to Manchester

[Dspatula]

Just a thought I was having for an alternate route between Warrington Central and Manchester allowing the Manchester Suburban section to be converted to Metrolink.
I realise that with NPR this already completely unrealistic, so I'm just considering it without really factoring that in.
The line is 8km long and, diverges from the current CLC at Glazebrook West junction signal box and mainly follows the M62 until it joins the Chat Moss line just before the M60 overbridge.
I believe the M62 takes this route to avoid the issues with crossing Chat Moss so I am hopefully assuming the same would be true for this rail route.
Two residential properties would likely require demolition and the section passing the narrow section between M62 and Irlam would likely need noise mitigation engineered in.
Based roughly on East West Rail and assuming a cost between £120million and £160million.

Pros
Allows conversion of Irlam to Manchester to Metrolink without the need for tram-trains.
Trains between Manchester and Warrington Central could be maintained at the current 4 trains per hour.
Better service to Patricroft and Eccles as it should be easier to timetable stops with expresses able to take the alternate route to stoppers
Diverging train movements at Castlefield are reduced to 1 freight train per hour in each direction and the line to Trafford Park becomes freight only allowing trains to be stacked on the route for departure and, routed on to the line without the need to consider passenger trains.

Cons
Route is about 2kms longer and would roughly 2 minutes slower for a non-stop service to Warrington Central.
More trains though Ordsall Lane junction, would be around 15 trains an hour one way or a train 2 minutes in all directions, this could be mitigated by matching route pairs and routing some Warrington Central trains to Victoria.
Stations between Manchester and Glazebrook lose direct access to Liverpool and Warrington. New exchange could be built at the current location of Glazebrook West junction signal box but this would add significant costs.
Lose of the Chat Moss route between Manchester and the junction for the new route would cut all trains between Manchester and Liverpool.

 

[Philip]

It might as well have a station built to serve Irlam West where it runs alongside the M62; residents of Irlam wouldn't be happy if their rail service was to be downgraded to a tram service!

 

[Kite159]

It might as well have a station built to serve Irlam West where it runs alongside the M62; residents of Irlam wouldn't be happy if their rail service is downgraded to a tram service!

Although depends on the frequency of the trams as some might prefer trams if they run every 10 minutes compared to half hourly on the train

 

[Dspatula]

It might as well have a station built to serve Irlam West where it runs alongside the M62; residents of Irlam wouldn't be happy if their rail service was to be downgraded to a tram service!

Fantasy wise I would include a station there but, if I were considering it more realistically stations seem to add a lot to costs though so it would depend whether the likely passenger numbers added up, although I would say given how close the line gets to the housing in the area there's a fair chance it would be included for political reasons.
I would also include a new interchange between the tram and train just east of Glaze brook replacing the current Glazebrook station.
At this point I think most people determined to stick with the train would have more than enough access to it. However I think trams right into the city centre at more than twice the frequency would beat a tired 15x unit to Oxford Rd any day of the week.

Although depends on the frequency of the trams as some might prefer trams if they run every 10 minutes compared to half hourly on the train

Given the constraints though Cornbrook on the metrolink it would have to be run at 5 trams an hour so every 12 minutes, still more than double the current offer. They also wouldn't have to compete from space with passengers from further west either.

 

[Chester1]

Fantasy wise I would include a station there but, if I were considering it more realistically stations seem to add a lot to costs though so it would depend whether the likely passenger numbers added up, although I would say given how close the line gets to the housing in the area there's a fair chance it would be included for political reasons.
I would also include a new interchange between the tram and train just east of Glaze brook replacing the current Glazebrook station.
At this point I think most people determined to stick with the train would have more than enough access to it. However I think trams right into the city centre at more than twice the frequency would beat a tired 15x unit to Oxford Rd any day of the week.


Given the constraints though Cornbrook on the metrolink it would have to be run at 5 trams an hour so every 12 minutes, still more than double the current offer. They also wouldn't have to compete from space with passengers from further west either.

The biggest bottleneck is the section between Deansgate and St Peter's Square due to part of it being street running. The third track on the street section doesn't fully compensate. There isn't any spare capacity on this section.

 

[Dspatula]

The biggest bottleneck is the section between Deansgate and St Peter's Square due to part of it being street running. The third track on the street section doesn't fully compensate. There isn't any spare capacity on this section.

According to what I've read there is supposed to be capacity for 50 trams per hour on the section between Cornbrook and Saint Peter's square. The current maximum is 40 and my thinking was based on Tfgm's own plans for 5 additional Airport trams and 5 for tram-train on CLC, this may well have changed but I haven't read otherwise as yet.

Edit: sorry I was wrong it was 45 max so the full Airport line would be the limit, I have to wonder how tfgm were actually going to run tram-train on this line.

 

[30907]

An interesting suggestion - I think you might struggle at Ordsall Lane where I would consider partial grade separation, though this would be very difficult.

I wonder how it would compare cost-wise with the "western approach to Trafford Park" option sometimes mentioned on here?