Transpennine Route Upgrade and Electrification updates

[3RDGEN]

Think it was 25 percent. Which is Stalybridge to Manchester and Chrich Fenton to York.

That's correct,

"In October, I announced funding for the Transpennine Route Upgrade…

…the backbone of rail travel in the North…

…linking York, and Leeds and Manchester…

…with a quarter of the route expected to be electrified by this summer. "

N

York to Colton Junction was already done as part of the ECML electrification!

Don't let that fact get in the way of making claims of 25% completed, it's just another example of the rubbish they will tell you.

 

[Nottingham59]

…with a quarter of the route expected to be electrified by this summer. "

Don't let that fact get in the way of making claims of 25% completed, it's just another example of the rubbish they will tell you.

Note the careful choice of the word "Route" to spin the announcement

 

[Snow1964]

New drone video of new Alder Street sidings (site of old Hillhouse Shed), looks like electrification gantries already in place, and track for the sidings is laid, but not yet in use.

And drone video of the Deighton station area, the temporary station footbridge is visible, and recently regraded cutting sides. Also visible is what appears to be a temporary foot or utilities bridge alongside the road bridge across the tracks.

 

[Edvid]

Deighton station will close for a major rebuild between 30 August 2025 and sometime in 2027.

Friday 20 Jun 2025

Deighton station to close until 2027 for major rebuild​

Region & Route: Eastern

From Saturday 30 August, Deighton station will temporarily close as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) – a programme that will deliver a once-in-a-generation transformation to rail travel across the North.

When it reopens in 2027, customers will experience a completely rebuilt, modern station designed for faster, greener and more reliable journeys. Key improvements include:

• Extended platforms to accommodate longer trains with more seats.
• A brand-new footbridge with lifts for step-free access to both platforms.
• Four tracks instead of two, allowing faster services to overtake slower ones.
• A new station forecourt, including a drop-off point, accessible parking and improved waiting shelters.

While the station is closed, an hourly rail replacement bus service will operate between Huddersfield and Deighton. From 29 September 2025, this service will also stop at Brighouse. This will provide connections to onward rail services towards Manchester, Dewsbury and Leeds.

Customers are advised to plan their journey ahead of time by visiting nationalrail.co.uk or their train operator website. For details related to rail replacement departure points at Deighton station, please visit [link]

In addition, Whitacre Street - already closed to vehicles - will be closed to pedestrians from Wednesday 20 August until July 2026. This is to allow for the complete replacement of the Whitacre Street bridge, making space for new tracks and overhead lines to support greener, electric trains.

Gareth Hope, Sponsor for TRU, said:

“We appreciate that this will cause disruption to station users and would like to thank passengers for their patience and support.

“The work being undertaken at Deighton will allow the station to be brought up to modern standards and accommodate better rail travel across the North.

“We encourage rail passengers and road users to check before they travel within the affected timeframes for the closures of both Deighton station and Whitacre Street.”

Rob Warnes, Strategic Development Director for Northern, said:

“The upgraded Deighton station will support our mission to provide an inclusive, accessible railway that’s fit for the future.

“Our rail replacement service will ensure customers can continue to travel with minimised impact, connecting into a variety of rail services at both Brighouse and Huddersfield. Improvements to both stations will ensure the connection is as seamless as possible, however, journey times will be extended.

“We recognise that delivery of works on this scale can cause disruption to the lives of our customers, and we are grateful for their continued patience."

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Latest Sarah Bell update - shows wires going up near Church Fenton and other stuff around Morley and particularly the tunnel.

 

[superkev]

Latest Sarah Bell update - shows wires going up near Church Fenton and other stuff around Morley and particularly the tunnel.

Not sure what there doing in Morley tunnel but hopefully their fitting the steelwork supporting the wires to the roof.
Lot of weekend work on the overbridge bridge at Crossgates station recently.
K

 

[Revaulx]

The new yard at Hillhouse is enormous. Presumably track to access it will be laid during the Huddersfield station closure in September.

 

[johntea]

Deighton station will close for a major rebuild between 30 August 2025 and sometime in 2027.

Any ideas how this will affect the York - Manchester via Wakefield route?

Will they still be able to pass through the station without a passenger stop or will they be diverted (or worst case scenario will they just have a load of rail replacement bus services for 2 years!)

 

[KN94]

Any ideas how this will affect the York - Manchester via Wakefield route?

Will they still be able to pass through the station without a passenger stop or will they be diverted (or worst case scenario will they just have a load of rail replacement bus services for 2 years!)

Services will still be able to run through Deighton without calling.
Passengers for Deighton will need to change at Huddersfield or Brighouse for a replacement bus service.

 

[Earle Grey]

West of Cross Gates new turnback signals have been installed, so I presume it'll be to go in there.

Noted this morning that part of the pointwork has been installed recently on the Upside (Leeds bound). The remaining parts were sat in the compound, for what of a better word, at Cross Gates - with what I think is the actual point number and location written in yellow on the railhead... sorry not brilliant at reading upside down.

 

[superkev]

Re Robert Stenhouse latest photo of Waterworks bridge in the comments it mentions a busy July with Waterworks bridge, Colne bridge and broad canal bridge receiving new crossbeams or decking.
Nice to see the various bridges nearing completion.
K

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Yes. I love masts and wires but bridges are a huge part in terms of time and cost - so as you say, really good to see. Great news.

 

[mm333]

An area of land bounded by Shipley p4 and Bradford Beck, Leeds Road and Carnegie Drive map has been fenced off, the grass cut and now started to be dug up. There was one TRU sign on the fencing.

It's several hundred metres away from the new TMD and on the wrong side of the track, so what is this land being used for?

 

[themiller]

An area of land bounded by Shipley p4 and Bradford Beck, Leeds Road and Carnegie Drive map has been fenced off, the grass cut and now started to be dug up. There was one TRU sign on the fencing.

It's several hundred metres away from the new TMD and on the wrong side of the track, so what is this land being used for?

Could it be for extending the platform to cater for longer trains and additional car parking?

 

[quantinghome]

An area of land bounded by Shipley p4 and Bradford Beck, Leeds Road and Carnegie Drive map has been fenced off, the grass cut and now started to be dug up. There was one TRU sign on the fencing.

It's several hundred metres away from the new TMD and on the wrong side of the track, so what is this land being used for?

It's a site compound and site offices for the TMD works.

https://thetrupgrade.co.uk/shipleydepot/

Carnegie Drive temporary compound​

Due to space constraints within the Traincare Centre site, we have secured an area of redundant land off Leeds Road, alongside Carnegie Drive, which we will use as a compound for temporary office facilities for approximately two years whilst the new Shipley Traincare Centre is being constructed.

 

[jacob1710]

Does anyone know why during the Huddersfield closure all the XX:15 Leeds to Manchester Victoria TPE's call at Castleton? E.g. Realtime Trains. Some of the others call at Sowerby bridge and hebden bridge which makes sense to add in capacity, however Castleton gets very few passengers compared to those, and most other stations on that line. Wouldn't it be better to call at Rochdale instead?

 

[Geeves]

Does anyone know why during the Huddersfield closure all the XX:15 Leeds to Manchester Victoria TPE's call at Castleton? E.g. Realtime Trains. Some of the others call at Sowerby bridge and hebden bridge which makes sense to add in capacity, however Castleton gets very few passengers compared to those, and most other stations on that line. Wouldn't it be better to call at Rochdale instead?

Castleton usually has two trains an hour but for some reason one of the Northern stoppers has become none stop and TPE are picking up the slack, one thing to note however going east hopefully no one makes the mistake of getting on it to travel to Rochdale as the next stop is Brighouse!

We thought it might be for timing purposes but I can't see anything the Northern train would delay Vs stopping as normal. What's great is that for years we've told passengers No don't get on TPE for intermediate stations on the Calder Valley and now it's stopping at Castleton of all places!

 

[KN94]

Does anyone know why during the Huddersfield closure all the XX:15 Leeds to Manchester Victoria TPE's call at Castleton? E.g. Realtime Trains. Some of the others call at Sowerby bridge and hebden bridge which makes sense to add in capacity, however Castleton gets very few passengers compared to those, and most other stations on that line. Wouldn't it be better to call at Rochdale instead

Castleton usually has two trains an hour but for some reason one of the Northern stoppers has become none stop and TPE are picking up the slack, one thing to note however going east hopefully no one makes the mistake of getting on it to travel to Rochdale as the next stop is Brighouse!

We thought it might be for timing purposes but I can't see anything the Northern train would delay Vs stopping as normal. What's great is that for years we've told passengers No don't get on TPE for intermediate stations on the Calder Valley and now it's stopping at Castleton of all places!

I *think* the timing issue is heading towards Manchester.
Northern 2B's (RCD - BBN) are skipping Castleton and reaching Miles Platting at 12:08 (as normal?).
TPE's Scarborough 1P's are calling at Castleton and reaching Miles Platting at 12:13.
It's probably just enough to slow the TPE service down without adding yet more pathing. And then it's replicated in the other direction for timetable simplicity (ie. a clearer message to say this train won't be calling / will be calling in both directions rather than just one)
Assumptions again, but it's Castleton over Rochdale due to passenger numbers being lower there, putting less strain on what's likely to already be a busy TPE service and taking less revenue away from Northern (plus a Rochdale starter/terminator can't skip Rochdale..).

That's my understanding of it. Happy to be corrected!

 

[LittleAH]

Castleton usually has two trains an hour but for some reason one of the Northern stoppers has become none stop and TPE are picking up the slack, one thing to note however going east hopefully no one makes the mistake of getting on it to travel to Rochdale as the next stop is Brighouse!

We thought it might be for timing purposes but I can't see anything the Northern train would delay Vs stopping as normal. What's great is that for years we've told passengers No don't get on TPE for intermediate stations on the Calder Valley and now it's stopping at Castleton of all places!

It’s to enable 3 TPE trains to be diverted on the Calder valley every hour.

 

[superkev]

Couple of excellent new Sarah Bell youtubes over last 2 days.
First shows new Deighton temporary footbridge and meandering stepped entrance path. As Deighton closes for a period from end of August to me it looks like a total waste of money. Can't see many people bothering to use it.
Second shows this weekends much work on the 4 new bridges between Hudds and Heaton lodge junc.
K

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Couple of excellent new Sarah Bell youtubes over last 2 days.
First shows new Deighton temporary footbridge and meandering stepped entrance path. As Deighton closes for a period from end of August to me it looks like a total waste of money. Can't see many people bothering to use it.
Second shows this weekends much work on the 4 new bridges between Hudds and Heaton lodge junc.
K

Yes - the 4 bridges within a mile getting work done was the best video to me.

 

[YorksLad12]

Yes - the 4 bridges within a mile getting work done was the best video to me.

It's shame they replaced the lattice footbridge at Heaton Lodge with the Big Green Monstrosity (TM). I know it was too low for the wires, but I'd have thought it could have been removed, some concrete steps built to raise it up ad them reinstated. Someone's going to have to update Google Maps as well; no longer is it a "Historical landmark", just a big canvas waiting to be covered in graffiti.

 

[RealTrains07]

Couple of excellent new Sarah Bell youtubes over last 2 days.
First shows new Deighton temporary footbridge and meandering stepped entrance path. As Deighton closes for a period from end of August to me it looks like a total waste of money. Can't see many people bothering to use it.
Second shows this weekends much work on the 4 new bridges between Hudds and Heaton lodge junc.
K

Its a shame the works at Deighton can’t just happen at weekends or during periods when the line will be closed anyway for other TRU works.

Closing a whole station for over a year whilst other stations getting work done as part of TRU remain open

 

[KN94]

Its a shame the works at Deighton can’t just happen at weekends or during periods when the line will be closed anyway for other TRU works.

Closing a whole station for over a year whilst other stations getting work done as part of TRU remain open

The whole station is being re-built. It needs to be re-built to accommodate four-tracking and OHLE installation, so I can imagine re-building it over weekends would delay the entire process.
Ravensthorpe will also be closing whilst it is re-built, just as Morley was a couple of years ago. Other stations that are staying open aren't having as significant work done.

 

[YorkshireBear]

The whole station is being re-built. It needs to be re-built to accommodate four-tracking and OHLE installation, so I can imagine re-building it over weekends would delay the entire process.
Ravensthorpe will also be closing whilst it is re-built, just as Morley was a couple of years ago. Other stations that are staying open aren't having as significant work done.

Definitely, and Mirfield has stayed open only because of some quite clever phasing of works!

 

[LittleAH]

First shows new Deighton temporary footbridge and meandering stepped entrance path. As Deighton closes for a period from end of August to me it looks like a total waste of money. Can't see many people bothering to use it.

It was supposed to come into use much earlier but issues with the utilities on the bridge above delayed it. Closing a station for months longer when nothing is taking place isn’t something the railway should be doing for the sake of a few bob. Immediately forgetting the cost of running a replacement bus…

 

[RealTrains07]

The whole station is being re-built. It needs to be re-built to accommodate four-tracking and OHLE installation, so I can imagine re-building it over weekends would delay the entire process.
Ravensthorpe will also be closing whilst it is re-built, just as Morley was a couple of years ago. Other stations that are staying open aren't having as significant work done.

Even then, i find Ravensthorpe an odd one as surely they build the new station in the new location then close the old one when the new one is almost complete? Instead of doing long closures now?

 

[Geeves]

Even then, i find Ravensthorpe an odd one as surely they build the new station in the new location then close the old one when the new one is almost complete? Instead of doing long closures now?

If you look at the photos and the new layout I don't think its physically possible to have both open at the same time, a single line will be climbing up from the new station to join the fast lines on the viaduct, the original line will be gone, the old platforms and line will all have to go in advance

 

[Alexd]

Even then, i find Ravensthorpe an odd one as surely they build the new station in the new location then close the old one when the new one is almost complete? Instead of doing long closures now?

Think that possibly has a lot to do with the work to construct the grade separation and other work around there?

 

[D Mylchreest]

I'm wondering why the new station wasn't built on the L&Y mainline rather than the LNW 'branch' to Leeds. If they had it would have given Ravensthorpe a direct line to Wakefield