Could the Styal Line ever become fully segregated?

[Purple Orange]

Travelling in to Euston & Paddington, London Underground shares part of the route in to central London with the WCML and GWML, with the tube lines segregated from the national rail lines (given this is a rail forum, I’m sure most of us can picture the scene).

This has made me wonder could this ever be achieved between Piccadilly P10-P14 and Slade Lane?

• Would additional tracks be required to ensure adequate capacity in to Piccadilly P1-P9?
• I’m assuming this could only be done with HS2 fully operational
• TPE and Scotland services transferred to NPR and perhaps Victoria (unless Scotland services loops around through the HS2 tunnel).
• Could this enable a metro frequency on the Styal line to the Airport/Wilmslow with defined routes to Bradford/Rochdale, Blackburn, Blackpool/Preston, Southport and Warrington?

 

[Ianno87]

Travelling in to Euston & Paddington, London Underground shares part of the route in to central Local noon with the WCML and GWML, with the tube lines segregated from the national rail lines (given this is a rail forum, I’m sure most of us can picture the scene).

This has made me wonder could this ever be achieved between Piccadilly P10-P14 and Slade Lane?

• Would additional tracks be required to ensure adequate capacity in to Piccadilly P1-P9?
• I’m assuming this could only be done with HS2 fully operational
• TPE and Scotland services transferred to NPR and perhaps Victoria (unless Scotland services loops around through the HS2 tunnel).
• Could this enable a metro frequency on the Styal line to the Airport/Wilmslow with defined routes to Bradford/Rochdale, Blackburn, Blackpool/Preston, Southport and Warrington?

It does have some element of segregation already; the Styal line carries on as the Slow Lines and the lines via Stockport carry on as the Fast Lines (going 4-to-2 at Slade Lane).

You could probably segregate them more tomorrow if you really wanted to, by sending everything from Stockport into Piccadilly shed, and everything via Castlefield to the Airport - albeit with loss of through links in some cases (e.g. Liverpool-Sheffield, Bolton-Stockport, etc.)

 

[Purple Orange]

It does have some element of segregation already; the Styal line carries on as the Slow Lines and the lines via Stockport carry on as the Fast Lines (going 4-to-2 at Slade Lane).

You could probably segregate them more tomorrow if you really wanted to, by sending everything from Stockport into Piccadilly shed, and everything via Castlefield to the Airport - albeit with loss of through links in some cases (e.g. Liverpool-Sheffield, Bolton-Stockport, etc.)

I think losing some of those links that go through P13 & P14 would be mitigated through NPR in the long term, which is probably the only realistic point this could happen. Although Bolton-Stockport would be lost, I doubt that would be a major headache for residents of either town.

 

[jfollows]

Although Bolton-Stockport would be lost, I doubt that would be a major headache for residents of either town.

I recall that when I suggested something like this in the past I was corrected and that there's in fact quite a reasonable traffic flow in normal times between these two stations! Because I did originally share your view expressed here too.

 

[Dr Hoo]

It would be rather unusual for a 'fully segregated' route to also carry a lot of through freight traffic as the Styal Line does. Notwithstanding the general routeing container trains quite often seem to be 'diverted' through Stockport in my experience. Would this flexibility be lost?

 

[jfollows]

It would be rather unusual for a 'fully segregated' route to also carry a lot of through freight traffic as the Styal Line does. Notwithstanding the general routeing container trains quite often seem to be 'diverted' through Stockport in my experience. Would this flexibility be lost?

It sounds as if it might.
In recent years there have been multiple incidences of points failures at Heald Green, requiring the points there to be secured in the direction of the airport, and also requiring freight trains to be diverted through Stockport.