What Would You Do About It?

[MidnightFlyer]

What would you do about problems such as solve the New St capacity problems, ECML congestion or Manchester Piccadilly p13/14?

 

[Ivo]

New Street I don't frankly care about; it's a lost cause. Joking aside though, a LOT needs to be done there. The ECML isn't as bad as the WCML in my opinion, which is why OA operators can access it more easily.

As for Piccadilly? This needs to be given another chance. That would solve a lot of the crowding, not only with P13/14 but the entire station (and alleviate the need for every second announcement to begin with "Please join the front train only, for ..... ").

 

[142094]

Trying to find some money would be my starting point.

 

[Geezertronic]

The New Street Gateway Project will hopefully facelift the station and make it look pretty but doesn't sort out the main problem which as you say is capacity.

Could Moor Street be extended further than the Evergreen plans cater for? Even if it could, could you get more trains through to Snow Hill and beyond?

If HS2 comes off, could another through station be created in Birmingham City Centre?

Could International take more terminating services?

Where's my magic wand when I need it

 

[Mojo]

The New Street Gateway Project will hopefully facelift the station and make it look pretty but doesn't sort out the main problem which as you say is capacity.

Actually it will; there will be so much disruption and the work will be carried out in such a manner that at least 10% of the existing passengers will switch modes of transport

 

[Bittern]

I would say "ah screw it" and go get a coffee.

 

[LE Greys]

As I'm sure I've said before.

Snow Hill-Wolves Low Level

Somehow find the space to cram in a pair of lines and rebuild the route. Divert traffic from Telford and Shrewsbury, and anything else you can think of (and perhaps increase the service at the same time). Give Snow Hill a facelift and you probably have a decent station.

Of course, the ultimate solution is Curzon Street, if they ever build HS2
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
ECML

Well, start by quadrupling all the way to Grantham, reopen the Leamside to help clear out the Durham area and try to come up with some way of replacing the Lincoln level crossing, thus allowing more traffic to run that way. The Shaftholme flyover is a step in the right direction. I haven't looked at the south end of York for a while, but if the old parcels spur connects to the down Leeds at Holgate Jcn, then two extra crossovers would be very helpful, allowing direct running from the Down Leeds into platform 9. A third approach from Poppleton Jcn would work as well, if there's room to cram it between the down main and the depot.

 

[starrymarkb]

Complete flight of fancy but why not build a tunnel from University to East of BNS with new underground platforms at Five Ways and New Street. Send the Cross City down that way and you've removed a lot of throat crossing and a couple of platforms

 

[The Planner]

You'll be suprised at just how much is being looked at as part of the New St re-signalling project. People seem to think its just the station, but the ideas reach out much further than that....

As for basically duplicating Brum Wolves with Snow Hill Wolves LL, why ? for the amount of cash it would cost, what would you really gain ??

 

[gordonthemoron]

ECML - New bridge/tunnel at Welwyn North, connect ECML to thameslink to reduce platform congestion at KX, flyover at Newark, reopen Leamside & route all trains which don't stop at Durham that way.

 

[mumrar]

The Snow Hill to Wolves low level idea is totally mad. It's a route that couldn't survive when it was open, and has been resurrected as a light rail system, with the quicker route to connect the two cities being from New Street. Wolves low level is now a redeveloped site, and that whole area of Wolves os hideously cramped, there's nowhere to put anything.

Nowhere to put anything is the problem at New Street too, it's in a dug out box, so it's size is predefined, as is capacity by the two tunnels at either end. It will cost a small fortune to do any underground railway work, which would never be approved because Birmingham is not London. This country is far too London-centric, and it is killing our economy, but that's another thing entirely. Whilst Moor St opening is a good thing for extra platforms, you still have the bottleneck of the viaduct to Bordesley.

As for the ECML, if we can still fund HS2 and Crossrail, then they should get their wallets out for an additional viaduct and tunnel(s) at Welwyn to stop that ridiculous bottleneck too, it may then encourage freight usage a bit more.

 

[Invincibles]

For Piccadilly, the real problems seem to involve the amount of throat crossing and the lack of capacity through platforms 13/14.

Space around 13/14 is limited and while there always looks to be room to add extra lines to the south of the station I imagine it is actually very tight. If it was possible then that would be a really useful change to make, but if it was easy then surely it would have been done.

I Often wonder if it would be possible to reopen Mayfield as some sort of airport hub where special trains to the airport could operate as a shuttle with check in facilities etc. This could then replace many of the current airport trains and provided a good connection was provided across the platforms the end result might actually be something more convenient than a direct train.

If it were possible to create some sort of dive under / fly over on the approaches to carry trains across the approach or the Transpennine trains from the airport hub to the Guide Bridge line then that would help flows but again the approaches are tight.

I have often thought it would be good if they could reopen the chord that goes off immediately south of the station over a viaduct to join the line through to Miles Platting and allow trains to then go from the low number platforms to Victoria. If electrified this could then take trains to Liverpool via the Chat Moss and could also take the Liverpool - Scarborough train were that to be diverted that way. North Wales coast trains could also come in by this chord and so terminate without clogging up 13/14. Finally I would then make the Liverpool - Manchester Airport train operate in the path of the old Liverpool - Scarborough (and therefore not serve Chat Moss). More platforms could presumably be added on the Network Rail offices and bits of old goods station land that remains if more platforms were needed to cope with these moved services. (Virgin would stop using platform 4 if at all possible to free up a bit of space) This has the advantage of allowing other services to be linked up, which seems to have been the aim of the tunnel.

 

[222666]

XC routes other than Birmingham? Like, upgrade the Bicester - Bletchley freight line & reinstate Brampton Valley Railway, linking the south with east midlands. Or run some XC up the Marches (West country - Liverpool & Manchester), round Maindee Curve.

Yeah, forget HS2 albatros & do something more usefull!

 

[The Planner]

That's what is intended for Bicester Bletchley anyway. Maindee Curve is pointless as you miss out Newport, which would be a major revenue earner, plus you would be competing with ATW Cardiff Manchester so it wouldn't be allowed anyway.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Whilst Moor St opening is a good thing for extra platforms, you still have the bottleneck of the viaduct to Bordesley.

That isnt as bad as you think, its on 3 minute headways anyway. The only issue is getting stuff out of the bays and conflicting movements there.

 

[philjo]

Get the East-West line built. Provides much needed MK-Oxford links etc.
Must include the eastern section which should be built as the proposed Luton-Stevenage Link (ideally to include a station located actually at Luton airport ??). Would allow new Norwich-Cambridge-Stevenage-Luton-Bletchley ( & MK?) -Oxford-Bristol service.

Luton-Stevenage can then also act as an alternative route around Welwyn via MML (as a lot of the GN services will be running into Thameslink by then) so ECML & MML can use each other for diversions - 3 routes from Stevenage if you include Hertford Loop. Plus allowing new journey opportunities - e.g. semi fast from Stevenage calling at St Albans, West Hampstead etc.

 

[caliwag]

HS2 or albatros if you prefer, should completely avoid Birmingham if you want an efficient run to the "real North". Nobody has ever answered my simple question "where are all these 15000 people an hour that want to do that journey?"
However it won't happen anyway, so we can all start planning the spend on the "real railway".

Holgate (South end of York starts soon), though I have often wondered why they never planned to run the Harrogates round the freight curves into 10/11...no conflict at North end then with XC and ECML. (in answering my own question, it's probably down to driver training)

Is the proposal to take Trans-Pennines to Manchester airport via Victoria, new viaduct curve, through 13/14 avoiding conflict at the throat a dead duck? Sorry cannot remember the junction names.

 

[222666]

Maindee Curve is pointless as you miss out Newport, which would be a major revenue earner, plus you would be competing with ATW

Hmmm, I'm not sure that just because Newport is there makes it entirely pointless, I mean you would be linking Bristol with Hereford direct, though probably not serving Abergavenny & the likes, as that's ATWs job, like you said . I wouldn't suggest they take the same frequency as ATW

 

[90019]

Complete flight of fancy but why not build a tunnel from University to East of BNS with new underground platforms at Five Ways and New Street.

What's Barnes got to do with it?

 

[GingerSte]

OK here’s my small list for you all to chew on. Some of the ideas are definitely “out there” but some could be achieved and some are being achieved.

As far as I’m concerned, the whole ECML could do with an upgrade. This can then take the strain from the MML. This list is also designed to bring places like Hull and Sunderland up to an hourly frequency and bring a few places in from the railway wildernesss,

1. ECML
1.01 4-track at least as far as Peterborough, including Digswell Viaduct.
1.02 Welwyn overpass (still happening AFAIK)
1.03 Shaftholme Junction overpass (still happening AFAIK)
1.04 Overpass at Peterborough to take freight traffic from Peterborough-Leicester line over ECML onto Lincoln line
1.05 New service Sheffield-Chesterfield-Nottingham-London via Grantham. Extend to Leeds if capacity permits. New overpass at Grantham to take Nottingham->London services over ECML.
1.06 Newark flyover
1.07 Overpass to take Doncaster-Selby-Hull down line over ECML. Allow Hull Trains to run an hourly London KX to Hull service.
1.08 Overpass at Hambleton to take connecting up line over ECML
1.09 Overpass at Ardwick junction(?) to take Leeds->Sheffield services over Doncaster->Leeds services
1.10 4-track from remodelled Ardwick Junction(?) to north of Fitzwilliam station to allow fast services to overtake slow ones.
1.11 New station on passing loops at Thorpe (between Wakefield and Leeds)
1.12 2 new tracks on west throat of Leeds station from junction between Wakefield and Bradford Interchange lines to meet up with existing lines from Shipley. Move Shipley Line tracks over to current Harrogate line tracks. 2 New tracks for Harrogate line into Leeds station. 2-3 new platforms at Leeds station on current car park site. New multi-storey car park to take displaced cars (and possibly some more). 1 New track at south of Western throat from Whitehall Junction to current platform 17 at Leeds station.
1.13 Reopen Ulleskelf-Tadcaster-Wetherby-Harrogate line. Provide new service to London KX calling at these stations plus Doncaster. (Probably class 180, 220, 221,222 or short HST)
1.14 Reopen Leeds-Wetherby line. Provide Leeds-Wetherby-Harrogate service.
1.15 Electrify Neville Hill-Colton Junction
1.16 4-track Colton Junction-York Station
1.17 Reopen Malton-Pickering line and agree track access charges for NYMR. Provide Leeds/York-Whitby service.
1.18 Swap up and down through platforms at Darlington station. Build overpasses to take up services over ECML and down services into current down platform. Include connections for services from south-facing bay platforms (ie Middlesborough) in south overpass. (ie clear ECML of as many crossing movements as possible)
1.19 Reopen Leamside line
1.20 Reopen/build line from Durham through Lanchester, Consett and Rowlands Gill to the Metro Centre.
1.21 Reopen line from south of Washington to South Hylton station
1.22 Allow Grand Central to run hourly services for Sunderland and Bradford, with faster journey times on core ECML.
1.23 XC services currently running through Doncaster to run through Wakefield and Leeds.
1.24 New XC (or open access) service: Hull-Brough-Selby-Doncaster-Sheffield-Chesterfield-Derby-Tamworth-Lichfield City-Sutton Coldfield-Birmingham New Street-Bromsgrove-Droitwich Spa-Cheltenham-Gloucester-Bristol Parkway-Bristol Temple Meads

2. MML
2.01 Derby service no longer to run via Nottingham. MML to concentrate on core route to Derby. Pax between Sheffield and Derby can use the improved XC service.
2.02 Provide London St Pancras to Matlock service. In long term reopen Matlock to Buxton and provide through service to Manchester.
2.03 Remodel southern throat to Derby station in order to separate trains to/from Nottingham and Birmingham.
2.04 New bi-directional track between Dore and Sheffield station. New station on this track (single platform) to serve business park.
2.05 4-track northern throat of Sheffield station to where the 2 lines diverge
2.06 New station on Don Valley line serving Meadowhall
2.07 4 track from junction just north of Swinton station to junction just north of Rotherham
2.08 Re-route local trains between Sheffield and Rotherham onto Don Valley line. Separation now provided between fast and slow lines between Sheffield and Swinton, and full Separation provided between services from Sheffield-Doncaster and Leeds. (The cost will be a loss of connections at the current Meadowhall interchange, but these connections could be provided at Sheffield.)
2.09 Split Leeds-Sheffield local service (via Moorthorpe) into 2 services. Service 1 Stops at all stations on line in West Yorkshire plus Rotherham, Meadowhall and Sheffield. Service 2 stops at all stations on line in South Yorkshire plus Moorthorpe, Wakefield Westgate and Leeds. Time so any pax requiring to change between these are not waiting long. This will provide increased capacity and speed for local route.


EDIT - I should have declared my interest. A lot of these projects involve bridges/overpasses. I am a bridge engineer who does a lot of railway work. I would possibly benefit if some of these schemes went ahead, but I do believe that a program of grade separating junctions would remove a lot of conflicting moves, and enable more and faster services to go ahead.

 

[starrymarkb]

What's Barnes got to do with it?

Knew someone was going to come out with that - Not everyone uses reservation codes :P

 

[Ivo]

OK here’s my small list for you all to chew on. Some of the ideas are definitely “out there” but some could be achieved and some are being achieved.

As far as I’m concerned, the whole ECML could do with an upgrade. This can then take the strain from the MML. This list is also designed to bring places like Hull and Sunderland up to an hourly frequency and bring a few places in from the railway wildernesss,

1. ECML
1.01 4-track at least as far as Peterborough, including Digswell Viaduct.
1.02 Welwyn overpass (still happening AFAIK)
1.03 Shaftholme Junction overpass (still happening AFAIK)
1.04 Overpass at Peterborough to take freight traffic from Peterborough-Leicester line over ECML onto Lincoln line
1.05 New service Sheffield-Chesterfield-Nottingham-London via Grantham. Extend to Leeds if capacity permits. New overpass at Grantham to take Nottingham->London services over ECML.
1.06 Newark flyover
1.07 Overpass to take Doncaster-Selby-Hull down line over ECML. Allow Hull Trains to run an hourly London KX to Hull service.
1.08 Overpass at Hambleton to take connecting up line over ECML
1.09 Overpass at Ardwick junction(?) to take Leeds->Sheffield services over Doncaster->Leeds services
1.10 4-track from remodelled Ardwick Junction(?) to north of Fitzwilliam station to allow fast services to overtake slow ones.
1.11 New station on passing loops at Thorpe (between Wakefield and Leeds)
1.12 2 new tracks on west throat of Leeds station from junction between Wakefield and Bradford Interchange lines to meet up with existing lines from Shipley. Move Shipley Line tracks over to current Harrogate line tracks. 2 New tracks for Harrogate line into Leeds station. 2-3 new platforms at Leeds station on current car park site. New multi-storey car park to take displaced cars (and possibly some more). 1 New track at south of Western throat from Whitehall Junction to current platform 17 at Leeds station.
1.13 Reopen Ulleskelf-Tadcaster-Wetherby-Harrogate line. Provide new service to London KX calling at these stations plus Doncaster. (Probably class 180, 220, 221,222 or short HST)
1.14 Reopen Leeds-Wetherby line. Provide Leeds-Wetherby-Harrogate service.
1.15 Electrify Neville Hill-Colton Junction
1.16 4-track Colton Junction-York Station
1.17 Reopen Malton-Pickering line and agree track access charges for NYMR. Provide Leeds/York-Whitby service.
1.18 Swap up and down through platforms at Darlington station. Build overpasses to take up services over ECML and down services into current down platform. Include connections for services from south-facing bay platforms (ie Middlesborough) in south overpass. (ie clear ECML of as many crossing movements as possible)
1.19 Reopen Leamside line
1.20 Reopen/build line from Durham through Lanchester, Consett and Rowlands Gill to the Metro Centre.
1.21 Reopen line from south of Washington to South Hylton station
1.22 Allow Grand Central to run hourly services for Sunderland and Bradford, with faster journey times on core ECML.
1.23 XC services currently running through Doncaster to run through Wakefield and Leeds.
1.24 New XC (or open access) service: Hull-Brough-Selby-Doncaster-Sheffield-Chesterfield-Derby-Tamworth-Lichfield City-Sutton Coldfield-Birmingham New Street-Bromsgrove-Droitwich Spa-Cheltenham-Gloucester-Bristol Parkway-Bristol Temple Meads

2. MML
2.01 Derby service no longer to run via Nottingham. MML to concentrate on core route to Derby. Pax between Sheffield and Derby can use the improved XC service.
2.02 Provide London St Pancras to Matlock service. In long term reopen Matlock to Buxton and provide through service to Manchester.
2.03 Remodel southern throat to Derby station in order to separate trains to/from Nottingham and Birmingham.
2.04 New bi-directional track between Dore and Sheffield station. New station on this track (single platform) to serve business park.
2.05 4-track northern throat of Sheffield station to where the 2 lines diverge
2.06 New station on Don Valley line serving Meadowhall
2.07 4 track from junction just north of Swinton station to junction just north of Rotherham
2.08 Re-route local trains between Sheffield and Rotherham onto Don Valley line. Separation now provided between fast and slow lines between Sheffield and Swinton, and full Separation provided between services from Sheffield-Doncaster and Leeds. (The cost will be a loss of connections at the current Meadowhall interchange, but these connections could be provided at Sheffield.)
2.09 Split Leeds-Sheffield local service (via Moorthorpe) into 2 services. Service 1 Stops at all stations on line in West Yorkshire plus Rotherham, Meadowhall and Sheffield. Service 2 stops at all stations on line in South Yorkshire plus Moorthorpe, Wakefield Westgate and Leeds. Time so any pax requiring to change between these are not waiting long. This will provide increased capacity and speed for local route.

I dread to think what his long list would include

 

[The Snap]

As has been mentioned once or twice, I feel reopening Mayfield would be a worthy investment for helping the capacity issues at Piccadilly. There are 6 (or maybe just 4?) platforms, and the bridge access in and out of the station from the mainline into Piccadilly has been retained. Fair enough it would take a large amount of money to refurbish the station building, as from what I gather its in a pretty bad way.

There was a plan in place in the late 80s and early 90s to extend the footbridge linking platform 12 to 13/14 at Piccadilly over Fairfield Road/London Road, thus connecting Piccadilly and Mayfield. However, it was dropped AFAIK, and Mayfield remains a derelict memory.

Reopening Mayfield with 4 platforms would create space for the airport services to come and go easily, as well as provide space for local services (ie: Glossop, Marple, Hazel Grove etc) to sit in the platforms for longer periods of time, thus freeing up space in Piccadilly for inter-city and inter-regional services that generally have shorter turn-around times.

 

[bangor-toad]

Hi there,
Here's my idea for improvement:

It's highly unlikely that there can be any expansion at New Street. It's a sunken concrete box in the middle of the city - any changes will be eye-wateringly expensive. New tunnels are out too I suspect for cash reasons...

So, the only option I can see is to use the current assets with a little bit of improvement... How about diverting services from the east and or north to Moor Street to terminante?

Access could be acheived without knocking down lots of the city:
Option 1. (From the east)
Build a chord from the main line near Adderly Park to reach the north-south line (dunno the name of that bit of track but it's the one that passes by the footie stadium). This would either obilterate the kart-track or make it truely exciting but would allow a train heading west to go south.
Then put a south to west chord in to allow access to Bordesley station. This would only need to remove what looks like a car dealership. The viaduct from there to Moor Street looks wide enough for an extra track or two so the capacity could be increased.

Option 2. (Also from the North)
If you look at Multimap you can see that there is a disused spur leading north from Bordesley station. That could be brought back to life and extended northwards to meet the flyover junction just east of New Street. This would need to demolish a couple of warehouses but no houses...
At the southern end, a new chord would be needed to access Moor Street. This looks more complex to thread through the existing buildings...

Cheers,
Jason

 

[The Planner]

Moor St really isnt as big as everyone thinks it is and could cope with !! The chords from the Camp Hill lines are still on the drawing board as far as I know.

The Duddeston viaduct spur was never finshed and is a 100 year old white elephant, its also on the wrong level and would cause carnage at Proof House.

 

[shinkansen1966]

As for Birmingham New St, I'd like to see a restoration of the old BR project of building a Birmingham Heartlands station.

 

[Geezertronic]

I wonder whether they could start the Birmingham New Street to Scotland services run by Virgin at International rather than New Street? The train would still pass through New Street but wouldn't be sat taking up half a platform during its terminating stop (how long do they wait). Unless this conflicts with ATW and LM services that terminate and start at International and if there is capacity between International and New Street of course.

HS2 or albatros if you prefer, should completely avoid Birmingham if you want an efficient run to the "real North". Nobody has ever answered my simple question "where are all these 15000 people an hour that want to do that journey?"

No one has answered it because it is a white elephant question. Under the previous Government HS2 to Birmingham was only supposed to be the start of it and if you look at the plans, HS2 under Labour connected to the WCML north of Birmingham meaning London-North trains could in theory utilise HS2 as far as the connection to the WCML at Lichfield cutting the journey time compared to the existing WCML to Lichfield.

Since the current Government have their own view, we'll have to wait and see what their plans are (if it ever happens)

 

[MidnightFlyer]

As for Piccadilly? This needs to be given another chance. That would solve a lot of the crowding, not only with P13/14 but the entire station (and alleviate the need for every second announcement to begin with "Please join the front train only, for ..... ").

Think the Vic-Picc stuff got cancelles with the arrival of the Metrolink

 

[455driver]

Knew someone was going to come out with that - Not everyone uses reservation codes :P

In that case they should write the whole station name and not be so bloody lazy!
If you aint gorna do it right then dont do it, simples

 

[LE Greys]

OK here’s my small list for you all to chew on. Some of the ideas are definitely “out there” but some could be achieved and some are being achieved.

As far as I’m concerned, the whole ECML could do with an upgrade. This can then take the strain from the MML. This list is also designed to bring places like Hull and Sunderland up to an hourly frequency and bring a few places in from the railway wildernesss,

1. ECML
1.01 4-track at least as far as Peterborough, including Digswell Viaduct.
1.02 Welwyn overpass (still happening AFAIK)

I take it you mean Hitchin, where they are planning to bring the construction material in by road when there is a perfectly good railway available, although it's still a good idea. At Welwyn, separating out the fast lines and building a viaduct/tunnel combination that's good for 155 mph would be a good idea, allowing any future IC250 equivalent the possibility of 155 all the way from Hatfield.

1.03 Shaftholme Junction overpass (still happening AFAIK)
1.04 Overpass at Peterborough to take freight traffic from Peterborough-Leicester line over ECML onto Lincoln line

Plus
Rebuild the down slow Peterborough-Helpston Jcn
Extra bore at Stoke Tunnel, thus four tracks all the way to Grantham

1.05 New service Sheffield-Chesterfield-Nottingham-London via Grantham. Extend to Leeds if capacity permits. New overpass at Grantham to take Nottingham->London services over ECML.

Or a rearranged diveunder at the site of the old Barkston Jcn.

1.06 Newark flyover
1.07 Overpass to take Doncaster-Selby-Hull down line over ECML. Allow Hull Trains to run an hourly London KX to Hull service.

Better done to the south at Black Carr, to take up Leeds services over the fast lines, with two new platforms between Doncaster station and the Plant (currently rusty sidings)

1.08 Overpass at Hambleton to take connecting up line over ECML
1.09 Overpass at Ardwick junction(?) to take Leeds->Sheffield services over Doncaster->Leeds services
1.10 4-track from remodelled Ardwick Junction(?) to north of Fitzwilliam station to allow fast services to overtake slow ones.
1.11 New station on passing loops at Thorpe (between Wakefield and Leeds)
1.12 2 new tracks on west throat of Leeds station from junction between Wakefield and Bradford Interchange lines to meet up with existing lines from Shipley. Move Shipley Line tracks over to current Harrogate line tracks. 2 New tracks for Harrogate line into Leeds station. 2-3 new platforms at Leeds station on current car park site. New multi-storey car park to take displaced cars (and possibly some more). 1 New track at south of Western throat from Whitehall Junction to current platform 17 at Leeds station.
1.13 Reopen Ulleskelf-Tadcaster-Wetherby-Harrogate line. Provide new service to London KX calling at these stations plus Doncaster. (Probably class 180, 220, 221,222 or short HST)
1.14 Reopen Leeds-Wetherby line. Provide Leeds-Wetherby-Harrogate service.

I'd be considering Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton as well, providing a KX-Donny-Ulleskelf-Tadcaster-Wetherby-Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton-Sunderland route.

1.15 Electrify Neville Hill-Colton Junction

Certainly!!!

1.16 4-track Colton Junction-York Station

Ditto!!!

1.17 Reopen Malton-Pickering line and agree track access charges for NYMR. Provide Leeds/York-Whitby service.
1.18 Swap up and down through platforms at Darlington station. Build overpasses to take up services over ECML and down services into current down platform. Include connections for services from south-facing bay platforms (ie Middlesborough) in south overpass. (ie clear ECML of as many crossing movements as possible)

I'd consider a Swindon-style solution, with platforms on the up freight line (not repeating the mistake of building on top of the down loop, which they did there)

1.19 Reopen Leamside line

Certainly!!!

1.20 Reopen/build line from Durham through Lanchester, Consett and Rowlands Gill to the Metro Centre.
1.21 Reopen line from south of Washington to South Hylton station

Metro extension or heavy rail? If we're considering Metro extensions, how about St James'-Metrocentre

1.22 Allow Grand Central to run hourly services for Sunderland and Bradford, with faster journey times on core ECML.
1.23 XC services currently running through Doncaster to run through Wakefield and Leeds.
1.24 New XC (or open access) service: Hull-Brough-Selby-Doncaster-Sheffield-Chesterfield-Derby-Tamworth-Lichfield City-Sutton Coldfield-Birmingham New Street-Bromsgrove-Droitwich Spa-Cheltenham-Gloucester-Bristol Parkway-Bristol Temple Meads

Add
Morpeth avoiding line
Quadruple as far as the south of that
Divert Chathill services to Alnwick, increase to half-hourly
Consider Metro extensions onto the Blyth and Tyne, with an additional line direct to the old east bays at Newcastle Central

Now onto my plan for the East Midlands, which involves building HS2 on the alignment of the old GCR London Extension and reopening the Woodhead Tunnel. This absorbs a lot of MML traffic, and allows EMT to add stops to their services south of Leicester, thus increasing the local service, and hopefully reopening the stations between Bedford and Kettering. All important stations (Nottingham Victoria, Sheffield Victoria, Manchester Wherever and Leeds City) would have two dedicated international platforms for cross-channel operators, fully sealed and with check-in facilities. The Woodhead route would modify traffic patterns into Manchester Piccadilly, where several flyovers would sort it out more effectively. A pity it's impossible to reopen Manchester Central. It would also allow Virgin to divert one Manchester express per hour to Glasgow and XC to send some traffic to Liverpool (access to HS2 between Brackley and Sheffield would compensate for this).

2. MML
2.01 Derby service no longer to run via Nottingham. MML to concentrate on core route to Derby. Pax between Sheffield and Derby can use the improved XC service.

Under my GCR plan, Nottingham would have high-speed services to Marylebone/Euston (about 60 minutes). XC would then run direct to Sheffield and over the Woodhead to Manchester.

2.02 Provide London St Pancras to Matlock service. In long term reopen Matlock to Buxton and provide through service to Manchester.
2.03 Remodel southern throat to Derby station in order to separate trains to/from Nottingham and Birmingham.

Both worth considering

2.04 New bi-directional track between Dore and Sheffield station. New station on this track (single platform) to serve business park.
2.05 4-track northern throat of Sheffield station to where the 2 lines diverge

My version involves diverting all former LNER lines to Victoria

2.06 New station on Don Valley line serving Meadowhall
2.07 4 track from junction just north of Swinton station to junction just north of Rotherham
2.08 Re-route local trains between Sheffield and Rotherham onto Don Valley line. Separation now provided between fast and slow lines between Sheffield and Swinton, and full Separation provided between services from Sheffield-Doncaster and Leeds. (The cost will be a loss of connections at the current Meadowhall interchange, but these connections could be provided at Sheffield.)

I'd reopen Rotherham Masborough for the former LMS lines, with former LNER traffic running via Rotherham Central

2.09 Split Leeds-Sheffield local service (via Moorthorpe) into 2 services. Service 1 Stops at all stations on line in West Yorkshire plus Rotherham, Meadowhall and Sheffield. Service 2 stops at all stations on line in South Yorkshire plus Moorthorpe, Wakefield Westgate and Leeds. Time so any pax requiring to change between these are not waiting long. This will provide increased capacity and speed for local route.

Roughly the same thing. I'm basically talking about splitting up former LNER and LMS services. Anything running into Victoria would also be electrified.

EDIT - I should have declared my interest. A lot of these projects involve bridges/overpasses. I am a bridge engineer who does a lot of railway work. I would possibly benefit if some of these schemes went ahead, but I do believe that a program of grade separating junctions would remove a lot of conflicting moves, and enable more and faster services to go ahead.

That's fine, I'm a big LNER fan (LE Greys is an anagram of Gresley)

 

[Ploughman]

Skelton Junction north of York, provide flyover from Up slow to Up slow across Skelton bridge. Removing slow moving freight conflicting movement.