Construction milestones reached on Hope Valley Railway upgrade

Recent line closures have seen major work completed, with key milestones hit by the project team.

The lift shafts for the newly built accessible footbridge have now been constructed at Dore and Totley station, whilst a bridge has been extended in Bamford to facilitate the new passing loop between Bamford and Hathersage stations as the installation nears completion.

Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, said: “I’m pleased to see another milestone reached in this multi-million-pound, Government funded scheme which will transform rail travel for passengers across the Pennines.

“The delivery of this project underpins our Network North Plan – the Government’s commitment to inject unprecedented levels of investment to improve the country’s transport – and will lead to more reliable services between Sheffield and Manchester once complete next year.”

The Hope Valley upgrade work involves the construction of new infrastructure and track and signalling improvements to remove bottlenecks and allow passenger trains to pass slower freight trains along the route.

The next six months will see the team complete the final stages of work – track installation, an underbridge extension and the footbridge installation in Dore & Totley are the remaining projects as we edge closer to delivering the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade in full.

Track replacement work will also take place in Grindleford, along with signalling improvements across large sections of the railway line.

Graeme Whitehead, senior sponsor at Network Rail, said: “The Hope Valley project team have been working hard to deliver a huge amount of work in recent weeks to ensure that key elements of construction are completed on time.

“Work is progressing well, with the scheme well on its way to delivering benefits for our customers travelling via train between Manchester and Sheffield.”

Chris Nutton, major projects director for TransPennine Express, said: “These engineering works are a crucial step towards delivering better services across the Hope Valley route, improving the stations we serve and upgrading infrastructure to make journeys more reliable.

"While these works take place around Christmas and early next year, there will be changes to TransPennine Express services, and we would urge our customers to check our website before they travel: www.tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/changes-to-train-times.”

To facilitate upcoming work, the railway line will be closed and work will take place throughout the day and night on the following dates:

12.30am Monday December, 25 to 3am Wednesday December, 27. From 12.15am Sunday December, 31 to 3:30pm on Sunday December, 31. From 11pm Friday January 19, 2024 to 1am Monday January, 22.

This will be followed by another closure from 11pm Friday January, 26 to 1am Monday January, 29.

In February the line will be closed between 11.30pm Saturday February, 3 and 1am Monday February, 5. Followed by another closure 11.30pm Saturday February, 10 to 1am Monday February, 12.

The final closure announced so far will be for ten days between 11pm Friday March, 15th and 5.15am Monday March, 25.