Fresh Hope for Hope Valley Rail Passenger Services as Modernisation gets Underway.
Passenger services in the Hope Valley have had a history of unrelability. One reason has been the conflict between the passenger and freight trains.
The downside of this modernisation is weekend closures at Dore & Totley, Grindleford, Bamford and Hathersage Stations for a month or more. The benefits, however, when finished, will be an improvement in passenger services and safer track crossings.
The entire package is costed at £145 million and the works include:
- a new eastbound loop between Bamford and Hathersage to separate out slow aggregate trains from the Buxton quarries
- a new bridge west of Hatherdage replacing a foot crossing at castleton Road
- platform extensions so trains can be longer
- reinstatement of the second track and platform at Dore & Totley, a new bridge and lifts
- signalling improvements to give better reliability.
Work on the project will last until 2023.