Shipley Depot Progress

[MichaelTrains]

Shipley Traincare Centre

text

thetrupgrade.co.uk

The new depot, which was officially announced on Thursday 14 March 2024 by Rail Minister Huw Merriman MP during a visit to Shipley Station, forms part of the Government’s latest £3.9billion investment into what is one of Britain’s largest rail projects.

Initially, the rail depot will be used to house and maintain Northern’s fleet of electric trains on the Airedale and Wharfedale Lines while access in and out of their Neville Hill depot in Leeds is restricted during a future phase of TRU.

I've just been to see the latest developments of the new Shipley depot for Northern.

Do we know how many trains will be stored here in an evening?

 

[quantinghome]

I've just been to see the latest developments of the new Shipley depot for Northern.

Do we know how many trains will be stored here in an evening?

The wikipedia page for the depot claims it has capacity for 40 trains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipley_TCC) but this surely means carriages.

The planning application (https://planning.bradford.gov.uk/on...s.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=SDKJTPDH0IL00) has lots of information about the depot.

From the look of the plans you have the following:

- maintenance building which has 4 'roads', each 4 carriages long.
- under-frame cleaning building - 1 train, again 4 carriages long.
- service sidings - 4 roads, each look to be up to 6 carriages long.

So it can take up to 9 4-car trains, or up to 13 3-car trains.

Add that to the sidings at Skipton and you've got depot and storage capacity for the entire Airedale and Wharfedale lines service. This is a very good thing, as getting trains out of Neville Hill and through Leeds is difficult given how busy the network is and it often leads to cancellations.

 

[MichaelTrains]

Yeah, I can’t see how they can get 40 trains in such a small space.

I think you're right and they mean carriages which will be 10-14 trains.

 

[xotGD]

Neville Hill had only got 29 EMUs.

 

[3RDGEN]

NR issued press release from yesterday;

Work underway on new £100m TrainCare Centre in Shipley

The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) has this week welcomed Leader of Bradford Council, Susan Hinchcliffe, Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw and Councillor Liz Rowe to its Shipley site, where the programme is investing over £100m in the construction of a new TrainCare Centre.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

"The site has now been completely cleared and flattened, with all contaminated soil from its former use as a scrapyard moved away. A large retaining wall has also now been installed along the western edge of the site which will enable the safe construction and operation of the main facility."

 

[MichaelTrains]

NR issued press release from yesterday;

When can we expect to see the lines going in?

 

[Geeves]

When can we expect to see the lines going in?

Foundations, under track pits and the actual buildings themselves you'd expect at least 9 months to a year. It's unlikely any rails (visible from outside) would go down before that.

 

[MichaelTrains]

Next time I’m passing through, I’ll snap some latest pictures

 

[30907]

Latest activity at the scrapyard (aka traincare depot). The retaining wall is impressive.
There is a 2-day engineering block this weekend, which may be about installing pointwork.

 

[nineteenninety]

Also worth noting Northern have started advertising jobs for the depot in the last few days.

 

[TransportHub]

Also worth noting Northern have started advertising jobs for the depot in the last few days.

Interesting there are new jobs, unless there's a big service uplift planned, I would have thought the existing staff that run the trains would move locations. Rather than recruit new people in Shipley and then have loads of spare staff in the existing locations (Leeds?)

 

[thejuggler]

Interesting there are new jobs, unless there's a big service uplift planned, I would have thought the existing staff that run the trains would move locations. Rather than recruit new people in Shipley and then have loads of spare staff in the existing locations (Leeds?)

Not so much service uplift, more unit uplift with introduction of 6 cars on the Airedale/Wharfedale triangle. There are also ancilliary jobs in depot facilities management.

Travelling to Shipley isn't a trip I'd relish if I was living somewhere convenient to Neville Hill, its at least 15 miles. I'm only about 7 miles from Shipley and it can take hour to drive at busy times of day.

 

[skyhigh]

Interesting there are new jobs, unless there's a big service uplift planned, I would have thought the existing staff that run the trains would move locations. Rather than recruit new people in Shipley and then have loads of spare staff in the existing locations (Leeds?)

Depot staff, not train crew.

Neville Hill will still exist and be used, this is extra capacity and more staff are needed to run it.

 

[TransportHub]

Thanks both, that makes sense