Another advantage of using the Kirkby line to trial the technology is that any failures will only ever be a few miles from Kirkdale and presumably the battery units will be diagrammed to keep a spare on hand.
Does the bridge now actually carry a double track formation or has the previous single track been reinstated over the new bridge purely in anticipation of further redoubling works associated with the station construction? Also is the new span a concrete or a metal bridge deck?
The new bridge only carries a single track at the moment...but it is in its final position on the left hand side of the bridge if you were looking towards Kirkby station. There is a gap where the 2nd track will fit...so I doubt they'll need to close the railway again. (Trains don't run on this line on Sundays, so it'll more than likely be laid then.) The embankment has been widened fully now, so I doubt it'll be long before the 2nd track is laid.
Is that looking generally north, please?
Taken from the North side of a train heading towards Kirkby, the first two photos are looking west, the second two east (ie looking back from my train). Hope that makes sense, the site is much larger and more complex than I expected.
highly likely it will be complete before any 777's are in use
Unless it’s only just started being laid this week, I visited Kirkby last week as part of a bike ride on the Leeds - Liverpool canal, which I ditched at Melling, so I will be going back and while there is now a new signalling cable under the bridge and some electrical equipment opposite the bottom of the ramp, as well as the new double track bridge and platform foundations, there isn’t much point in laying the 2nd track until the track through the Wigan platform can be relaid and the points put in where the concrete block is.
Glad to see some parts of the railway can still just get on with it let hope ASLEF result is positive so we can have some trains to use it
That's the new signal ML311.
Do you mean there is now a short section of double track on the Liverpool bound side? The track on the Wigan bound side has never been removed and has remained in use by Northern services through out the works, with only short blockades as far as Rainford.
As far as I am aware yes
I expect they'll use the current Merseyrail one, it's more convenient to reach from the entrance, and I think the corridor between the current two will become too thin when the track is connected.
[image source]It’s evident already at Kirkby that the current Liverpool platform will remain, the Wigan platform will be closed and the line will redouble immediately under the bridge. Redoubling from Fazakerley would necessitate closing the M57 so it likely won’t be done until the single track proves an insurmountable bottleneck.
The whole point of the new purpose built terminus at Headbolt Lane is the removal of the concrete block from the middle of the trackbed, since the recent crash revealed how dangerous it is for passengers to be stood in the path of an oncoming train that fails to stop at the buffers. It certainly will not be permissible in future to walk under the bridge.
I remember seeing somewhere that the current single-track section between Fazakerley and Kirkby will remain as it would've been prohibitively expensive to demolish and rebuild the bridge over the M57.
A good guess would be to assume it'll be the current Liverpool platform, as it is already capable of holding a 6 car train (the current Wigan platform would need some work), and there is a new starter signal and route indicator attached to the Liverpool side of the bridge in the photo above.
