Calder Valley electrification - the forgotten railway?

Rochdale Train Station

The Railway line which is known as the Calder Valley line has a long history of neglect by British Railways and the Department for Transport.

It runs from Manchester to Leeds and en route serves a substantial population.
It runs through the northern outskirts of Manchester, the western parts of Oldham, through Middleton, Rochdale (including the districts of Castleton and Smithy Bridge), Littleborough, various districts of Calderdale (including Walsden, Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Brighouse and Sowerby Bridge), Halifax, Bradford and Pudsey.

It is a very busy commuter line with grossly overcrowded peak hour trains at both the Leeds and Manchester ends of the line. Where there are station carparks (and not all stations have them) they are without exception insufficient to meet the demand. Overcrowding of peak hour trains is such that intending passengers are left behind on a daily basis as their intended train is so full.

It is acknowledged by the rail industry that the level of patronage, whilst significant, is depressed because of a number of drawbacks. Inadequate car parking depresses both peak and off peak demand. Overcrowding means that many would-be passengers are forced to use their cars. Whilst a minority of the trains are operated by comparatively new, comfortable class 158 units, too many are operated by 4 wheel Pacers. These inadequate trains introduced almost 30 years ago as a temporary stopgap measure are turned out every day on the Calder Valley route even for passengers making a journey of over 40 miles.

The majority of stations have inadequate undercover waiting accommodation, some still do not have real time train running information for waiting passengers.
How many passengers use the line? The official figures for 2011/2 show that footfall (station entries and exits) excluding Leeds and Manchester is about 11,000,000 (eleven million) per annum. Whilst the overwhelming majority of journeys are to and from Leeds or Manchester these figures will have a small percentage of double counting for journeys made exclusively between intermediate stations. That percentage is probably no more than 10%, leaving us with a journey figure of ten million: a figure which will have risen since early 2012. However these figures are less than the actual patronage. The various West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester PTE tickets such as bus/train have only been estimated. In Greater Manchester residents holding the Senior Citizen bus pass can travel free on off peak trains within the County and no record is kept of how many passengers are using the facility.

Such a busy line with so many intermediate sources of traffic cries out for the benefits of electrification. Almost 100 years ago there was a plan to electrify the line but railway politics prevented it.

The Department for Transport has just (13 December 2013) announced a list of railway lines in the north which a “joint task force” will examine to decide where the next electrification schemes in the north should be. The Calder Valley line does not appear on their agenda. The Calder Valley line will be left as an isolated island of diesel operated trains in a sea of electrification.

There has been an indication that the joint task force will not take the trouble to examine the Calder Valley line because there are so many bridges, tunnels and viaducts that it would be very costly. This smacks of a postcode lottery, decisions not being based on hard facts and need.

One aspect which ought to be concerning the Department for Transport is the lack of alternative or diversionary routes for their flagship electrified Trans Pennine Express service. This will be five or six fast electric trains an hour between Leeds and Manchester via Huddersfield. But what happens when the electrified route has to be closed for engineering work or because of a blockage? At present the diesel Trans Pennine Express trains can be diverted at a few minutes’ notice to run over the Calder Valley line. The Trans Pennine Route has been blocked in recent times by road vehicles hitting bridges (bridge strikes), storm damage including lightning strikes on signalling equipment, flooding and suicides. No-one at the Department for Transport seems to have considered how such problems could be handled when electric Trans Pennine trains no longer have any diversionary route.

Electrification of the Calder Valley route is essential not just for railway operating convenience but for the regeneration and economic growth in the local communities along its length which were all hard hit and have not yet recovered from the almost total demise of the textile industry and its allied engineering support. People are having to travel greater distances to work, especially into the main centres of Manchester, Leeds and Bradford. They are entitled to a train service which will carry them reliably and in comfort - something at the moment they significantly lack.
Bradford, Calderdale and Rochdale Local Authorities all back the call for the Department for Transport to reverse their decision to exclude the Calder Valley line from their electrification plans. When they granted the Northern franchise to Northern Rail they made a serious mistake in stipulating that it was for no growth in passenger numbers.

Since July 2004 the increase in Calder Valley passengers is at least 80%. This is despite the overcrowding, stations without protection from the Pennine weather and unsuitable rollingstock. That they are being carried at all is a tribute to Northern Rail’s expertise.

By refusing even to consider electrification of this busy, neglected line the Department for Transport are in danger of making a second, equally erroneous decision.

We strongly encourage all the authorities and MPs at the Greater Manchester end of the line to make urgent representations to Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport, for electrification of the Calder Valley line. HADRAG, the Rail User Group for the Yorkshire end of the Calder Valley Line and the MPs for West Yorkshire are actively campaigning with the same objects as ourselves.

Richard S Greenwood
STORM
(Support the Oldham Rochdale Manchester Lines)
Rail User Group