JAMES ABBOTT REPORTS ON PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS ON THE SOUTHERN TRANS-PENNINE ROUTE
Site for new loop: a pair of Class 158s on the 09.51 Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich working, with Bamford station in the far distance, on 24 April 2021. This photo is taken looking west from Jaggers Lane bridge at Hathersage; the new freight loop will be on the right-hand side of the picture, behind the train.
PHILIP SHERRATT
Network Rail is starting work on a £137 million project to provide a third express path between Sheffield and Manchester each hour. The project has been gestating for a decade or more; the original intention was that the third path would allow a Liverpool to Leicester service to be introduced, although whether those origins and destinations are the pair that will eventually be selected will be the subject of a review when demand patterns become clearer after the Covid crisis.
