Sowerby Bridge landslip 6th March

[Andyh82]

Due to a landslip the line between Sowerby Bridge and Halifax is currently blocked in the Halifax direction only

Trains are diverting via Brighouse and Dewsbury with those from Manchester Victoria also calling at Brighouse

Buses replace trains between Hebden Bridge and Bradford Interchange via all stations

The only rail service going from Halifax, Bradford to Leeds seems to be the Huddersfield-Leeds service. Presumably everyone is being sent to Forster Square?

Westbound services are unaffected

https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/n...disruption-between-hebden-bridge-and-halifax1

Due to a landslip between Sowerby Bridge and Halifax the line between Sowerby Bridge and Bradford Interchange will be closed on Tuesday 7 March.
The line will be closed to enable repair work to be carried out. This will cause significant disruption to the usual timetable, with a number of amendments in place.
This disruption will affect services travelling between Blackpool North/Manchester Victoria and Leeds/York only.
Services from Blackpool North to York will divert via Brighouse and Dewsbury and will not call at Halifax, Bradford Interchange or New Pudsey.
Services from Manchester Victoria to Leeds will also run via Brighouse and Dewsbury and will not call at Halifax, Bradford Interchange or New Pudsey.
There will also be slight delays on services from Huddersfield to Leeds. Meanwhile customers in Bradford are advised to travel to Leeds from Bradford Forster Square.
Additionally, a number of rail replacement coaches will run between Hebden Bridge and Bradford.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Any ideas what caused this? Is the Calder Valley about to be submurged yet again?

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Nice to see Brighouse gain some extra services, wished it was like this all the time - in the sense of services not the landslip.

 

[Adam0984]

Latest estimate is to open Wednesday 8th March

 

[lejog]

Any ideas what caused this? Is the Calder Valley about to be submurged yet again?

River levels at Sowerby Bridge are .2m compared with a high of 3.6m, so I don't think so. The area does have a history of embankment slips and collapsed tunnels though, the Brighouse line was blocked for several months shortly after reopening, due to an embankment slip only a mile or two from this one.

 

[lejog]

Latest estimate is to open Wednesday 8th March

Goody, hopefully a fast train to Leeds tomorrow for me then. It will be interesting to see if Northern run all four Hebden Bridge to Leeds tph through Dewsbury tomorrow as they seem to have done without major delays this evening, an interesting test of the Dewsbury line's capacity. Fortunately with all rolling stock getting through to Leeds, there seems to have been only minor delays to Leeds-Bradford-Halifax peak services.

 

[Eric]

I'm at the Interchange now and it's busy. I've never seen all four platforms occupied with trains before.

A 142 x2 has just left platform four for Leeds all standing and the next service to Leeds is the 20:44 from Huddersfield.

Luckily I'm only going to Halifax.

 

[Eric]

Why are the Blackpool's stopping short at Preston and Blackburn?

 

[edwin_m]

Why are the Blackpool's stopping short at Preston and Blackburn?

Something to do with capacity on the alternative route into Leeds?

There was a derailment on the same section a few years ago caused by a landslip.

https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/derailment-of-a-passenger-train-near-dryclough-junction-halifax

At 06:07 hrs on 5 February 2011 a derailment occurred close to Dryclough Junction, in Halifax. Both vehicles of a two-car passenger train were derailed when the train ran into stone rubble on the track. The rubble had fallen from a retaining wall beside the line which had collapsed during the night. There were eight passengers and two crew members on the train and nobody was injured in the accident.

 

[lejog]

Why are the Blackpool's stopping short at Preston and Blackburn?

Are they? According to realtraintimes, the 9:11 Blackpool to York service terminated at Leeds and the 12:11 at Hebden Bridge, but all subsequent services seem to run, diverted via Dewsbury. And apart from the 13:18 service from York running 30mins late and terminating at Leeds, so missing a connection with an replacement Leeds to Blackpool service, York to Blackpool services seem to be running normally.

Apparently the Huddersfield-Halifax-Bradford-Leeds service was held at Brighouse to provide a connection to Halifax and Bradford for passengers on the x.33 (Blackpool) and x.48 (Manchester) services from Hebden Bridge.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Whereabouts is the issue? From the arrangements I'd assume it's between Milner Royd and Dryclough junctions as it is only affecting the Sowerby to Halifax "arm" of what could be called the "Elland Triangle".

It's a shame that they can't simply reverse the diverted services at Greetland Junction or Brighouse, as that would allow Halifax and Bradford to see close to the regular level of service, as well as reduce extra services on the crowded route through Dewsbury. I assume that isn't possible because otherwise surely it would be happening?

Are the diverted services calling only at Brighouse? I'd have thought serving Dewsbury would be worthwhile as it has frequent (albeit no faster than from Brighouse) bus services to Bradford.

 

[Andyh82]

Probably no capacity to call at Dewsbury, plus the buses take about an hour to Bradford, no rail users would see them as any kind of option.

 

[urbophile]

I pity anybody trying to get from that line to Liverpool!

 

[Andyh82]

Seems like the line is blocked in both directions today to allow repairs to take place?

Buses replace trains Hebden Bridge to Bradford

I wonder if they will run any additional services today as they surely can't leave Halifax & Bradford to Leeds from 4 trains an hour to just one, all day?

 

[leedslad82]

Seems like the line is blocked in both directions today to allow repairs to take place?

Buses replace trains Hebden Bridge to Bradford

I wonder if they will run any additional services today as they surely can't leave Halifax & Bradford to Leeds from 4 trains an hour to just one, all day?

Just asked on twitter and they are running a limited services from Halifax to leeds via Bradford.

 

[lejog]

Seems like the line is blocked in both directions today to allow repairs to take place?

Buses replace trains Hebden Bridge to Bradford

I wonder if they will run any additional services today as they surely can't leave Halifax & Bradford to Leeds from 4 trains an hour to just one, all day?

The information on NRE and Northern's website seems to be currently different, inaccurate and somewhat contradictory.

Since I'm travelling later today, I've been checking timetables and it seems that:

• all services between Hebden Bridge and Leeds (both directions) are running via Dewsbury.
• there will (presumably) be connections at Brighouse onto the hourly Huddersfield-Bradford-Leeds service.
• there is an hourly Halifax to Leeds shuttle

There is a rail replacement bus service running Hebden Bridge to Bradford and NRE mentions a bus from Brighouse to Bradford (although this could be the normal bus).

And there is a signalling problem near Burnley which means the Blackpool-York services are heavily delayed!

 

[bradders1983]

Suggesting people in Bradford use Forster Square to get to Leeds is all well and good in the peaks and daytime but the final direct train between the two is at 1930 and people dont want to fanny around changing at Shipley.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Seems like the line is blocked in both directions today to allow repairs to take place?

Buses replace trains Hebden Bridge to Bradford

I wonder if they will run any additional services today as they surely can't leave Halifax & Bradford to Leeds from 4 trains an hour to just one, all day?

Agreed. As I said in my last post, it's a shame that services either can't or won't reverse at Greetland or Brighouse. Hopefully my usual stopper from Batley to Mirfield isn't affected by extra services running through there!

 

[lejog]

The advantage of running the services through Dewsbury is that the current timetable is maintained and services west of the Pennines are unaffected.

Is there a turning point at Brighouse? Could you seriously turn 3tph in each direction at Greetland with the Huddersfield/Bradford, Victoria/Brighouse and Grand Central trains also using the line? Even if this were feasible, the delays would mean a revised timetable, and either extra rolling stock or reduced services to the west.

Realtraintimes is currently showing services returning to normal after 11a.m.

 

[Spartacus]

I believe the diverted trains are calling at Brighouse, so passengers can change there, maintaining an East/West service via the Calder Valley.

 

[bookeyu83]

It's a good job Brighouse station was rebuilt then!

 

[lejog]

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailLDS

The landslip seems to be located at the southern approach to the brick lined cutting at Dryclough Junction.

 

[edwin_m]

https://twitter.com/NetworkRailLDS

The landslip seems to be located at the southern approach to the brick lined cutting at Dryclough Junction.

Is that the same place as the previous landslip and derailment? Note the rebuilt section of retaining wall at the top of the picture and compare with Figure 4 of the RAIB report. However this time it would appear to be the bank below the wall, not the wall itself.

https://assets.publishing.service.g...15d4c10000157/R172011_111020_Dryclough_Jn.pdf

 

[lejog]

Is that the same place as the previous landslip and derailment? Note the rebuilt section of retaining wall at the top of the picture and compare with Figure 4 of the RAIB report. However this time it would appear to be the bank below the wall, not the wall itself.

https://assets.publishing.service.g...15d4c10000157/R172011_111020_Dryclough_Jn.pdf

That appears to be correct, its certainly the same area as the 2011 incident and the new retaining wall is a bit of a giveaway. Having given the RAIB report a quick scan, it appears that the slope had not been in the Network Rail earthworks database and so had not been examined prior to that date, I hope it has been since 2011!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The advantage of running the services through Dewsbury is that the current timetable is maintained and services west of the Pennines are unaffected.

Is there a turning point at Brighouse? Could you seriously turn 3tph in each direction at Greetland with the Huddersfield/Bradford, Victoria/Brighouse and Grand Central trains also using the line? Even if this were feasible, the delays would mean a revised timetable, and either extra rolling stock or reduced services to the west.

Realtraintimes is currently showing services returning to normal after 11a.m.

Currently at Mirfield, still a few Northern units running through non-stop, so I assume diversions still in place. Not showing on RTT though.

If it were possible to turn back and still serve Halifax, it needn't necessarily be all 3tph- 2 or even 1 would at least lessen the impact on Halifax and Bradford passengers.

The fact that they can be diverted through Dewsbury with little or no impact on the scheduled services does raise a question: namely why are we losing the local stoppers in a year or two? Does one more TPE service per hour really necessitate the current plans? I suppose that's a tad off topic though.

 

[lejog]

I'm just off to Leeds from Hebden Bridge, it appears that off peak one of the Victoria to Leeds services has been cancelled (the one I was about to catch), so there are currently only 2 extra tph running via Dewsbury.

I can only suppose the answer to your question is that stops are required at pesky stations like Batley and Mirfield

 

[bradford758]

The advantage of running the services through Dewsbury is that the current timetable is maintained and services west of the Pennines are unaffected.

Is there a turning point at Brighouse? Could you seriously turn 3tph in each direction at Greetland with the Huddersfield/Bradford, Victoria/Brighouse and Grand Central trains also using the line? Even if this were feasible, the delays would mean a revised timetable, and either extra rolling stock or reduced services to the west.

Realtraintimes is currently showing services returning to normal after 11a.m.

Disruption at least until the end of service today

Sent from my 4009X using Tapatalk

 

[bradford758]

The revised service appears to be as follows,
2 pH Halifax-Bramley-Leeds
1 pH Brighouse-Halifax
2 pH Manchester Victoria-Brighouse-Leeds
1 pH Blackpool North-Brighouse-Leeds but not calling at Brighouse towards Blackpool

Sent from my 4009X using Tapatalk

 

[lejog]

Just a quick post on my journey to Leeds on a Blackpool to York train. The service was held on the Heaton Lodge flyover for 6 or 7 minutes to allow a TPE train to pass by, but then just ran 3 mins after the TPE service into Leeds (TPE timings courtesy of realtraintimes). From a capacity point of view, headways seem to be well sorted.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Seen on twitter all lines open. Imagine things won't be back to normal till tomorrow though.