How could a reopened Bury - Heywood - Rochdale line work?

[Ianno87]

Problems that would need addressing, but by no means insurmountable.

From an estimate off Google Maps (starting from Jubilee Way overbridge), 160 metre platform, plus 15 metre signal stand back, plus 20 metre buffer stop overrun puts the end of the running line somewhere to the north of the Trackside bar, sunk into the ramp up to Bolton Street..

 

[faltskog36abba]

Personally, I would love to see a heavy rail connection to Bolton street-from Manchester via Rochdale -its 5minutes from Millgate and the bus station-and 10 from the rock. There has been talk in the past of linking the ELR to Metrolink at both Castleton and between Radcliffe and the ELR, Many millions are needed and also the same goes for Bolton street[which has been mentioned. It seems to me that Metrolink is a no brainer-If money was available-Trams coming up a ramp say-near the college and terminating outside the bus station. Ideally they could go in interchange-but how? The line crosses over the Metrolink.

 

[YorksLad12]

Again, you're comparing apples with bananas. Keighley has a direct train service from Leeds (popn 2.5m), Bradford (popn 0.5m) whereas this is a tram link to Rochdale (popn 100k).

Add in it's easy to access the ELR at Heywood from Rochdale using the bus.

The population of the whole of West Yorkshire is 2.2m (ish). Leeds City Region might be 2.5m (I thought higher).

 

[317 forever]

It would be good if they could extend Metrolink from Bury to Rochdale via Heywood. There may be a problem creating a suitable eastbound turn at Bury though. It would also mean trams having to distinguish clearly between Rochdale via Oldham and Rochdale via Bury. Admittedly they do manage an effective distinction between trams via Market Street or via Exchange Square.

 

[tpjm]

Add in it's easy to access the ELR at Heywood from Rochdale using the bus.

It's a bit of a walk from the bus stop!

 

[Ianno87]

It would be good if they could extend Metrolink from Bury to Rochdale via Heywood. There may be a problem creating a suitable eastbound turn at Bury though. It would also mean trams having to distinguish clearly between Rochdale via Oldham and Rochdale via Bury. Admittedly they do manage an effective distinction between trams via Market Street or via Exchange Square.

The "obvious" way would be for a chord for trams to depart south from the current Interchange platforms but then swing immediately east on a new chord to join the "ski jump". i.e. through Manchester-Bury-Rochdale trams would reverse at Interchange.

 

[A0]

The "obvious" way would be for a chord for trams to depart south from the current Interchange platforms but then swing immediately east on a new chord to join the "ski jump". i.e. through Manchester-Bury-Rochdale trams would reverse at Interchange.

Agreed - in fact looking at Google Earth there is an area of land immediately south-east of Interchange station (which may have been the site of Knowsley Street station ?) which would appear to have sufficient space before reaching Market Street Bridge.

 

[Chester1]

Metrolink isn't likely to be particularly useful as a link to the ELR, in fact the proposal to run a line from Rochdale to Bury if built at all needs to link up with the existing Metrolink services at Bury and Rochdale.

There are far more worthy Metrolink proposals. May I suggest the Atherton line to Wigan and the Marple Rose Hill line via Reddish, which could reach the city centre and penetrate it with suitable on street links (Pendleton to Albert Square and Ashburys to Piccadilly).

The "obvious" way would be for a chord for trams to depart south from the current Interchange platforms but then swing immediately east on a new chord to join the "ski jump". i.e. through Manchester-Bury-Rochdale trams would reverse at Interchange.

That is exactly what I would do. Any successful Metrolink line between Bury and Rochdale needs to link both town centres and probably 2, maybe 3 stops in Heywood because there is no single location that would adequately serve most of the town. If the current proposal to run parallel single tracks were built then the service would need to be largely self contained to avoid passing any delays on to the rest of Metrolink. I would limit use of existing Metrolink network to Bury Interchange and Rochdale station to Rochdale town centre. I think the use of Tram Trains would mean service segregation intially even if dual track, simply due to fleet size.

The South Wales Metro should help or hinder the case for converting heavy rail lines. Bury - Rochdale is probably the cheapest option for a first orbital line. Its land take would be tiny i.e. a chord into Bury Interchange and a chord to link Rochdale Station's tram stop with the railway line above.

 

[Codville]

It would probably be cheaper to reopen Rochdale's disused island platform to tram-trains, there's enough room left for segregated single line from the Oldham line into Rochdale station and from there they'd have to run roughly 2 miles to Castleton East Junction but then you'd have to commit to wiring Rochdale to Castleton and possibly parts of the Heywood line to NR's standards such as done with Rotherham so it can be switched from 750v DC to 25kv AC when it's eventually decided to electrify up to Rochdale from Victoria.