NORTHERN HUB
2015 is a critical year for the Northern Hub, which has been combined into a single programme with electrification in the north west to ensure co-ordinated, safe, efficient delivery. RTM met Network Rail’s principal sponsor for north west of England, Martin Jurkowski, to discuss the programme.
T
he line between Preston and Blackpool North is to be upgraded: it is being
electrified and re-signalled, and track works will improve capacity through stations on the route. These works, which were to be handled separately, have now been brought together for delivery from mid-December 2016. This is later than originally planned for the electrification – but the re-signalling is happening earlier than expected.
It is a good example of Network Rail’s new combined ‘single programme’ in action. The Northern Hub capacity improvement works and the North West Electrification Programme (NWE), totalling £1bn of investment, are being combined into a single ‘North of England Programme’.
Network Rail’s Martin Jurkowski is responsible for all the capital investment between Crewe and Carlisle as principal sponsor for the region. He spoke to RTM at Square One near Manchester Piccadilly about the Blackpool re- phasing but also the wider context of the works in the north.
Faster, more frequent, with better rolling stock
The combined Northern Hub and NWE programmes have two core outputs: timetable changes in December 2016 and in December 2018.
Jurkowski said: “The works allow a major recast of the main inter-urban services across the north. The Northern Hub is primarily about improving connectivity between the main urban centres – with faster, more frequent services – while NWE and the forthcoming Transpennine
72 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 14
electrification is about improved rolling stock, higher reliability, shorter journey times for local services because of improved train performance, more capacity because of longer trains, and is also part of rail’s contribution to the greener economy. They are complementary schemes.”
Network Rail and its partners – the Department for Transport,
the Passenger
Transport Executives and the train and freight operators – wanted to move beyond focusing on individual projects, and instead look at the potential output for the entire rail industry. Those outputs and capacity for potential new services are being built into the new Northern and TransPennine Express franchises.
Other maintenance and renewals are ongoing, separate to the North of England Programme – everything from track renewals to the Liverpool Lime Street works and resignalling – but those too are being handled in a co-ordinated way.
Jurkowski said: “Treating this as a programme means we can plan to do things in a safe, controlled, efficient manner, with the right resources and on the right timescales.
“There is an overall plan for all of these works until December 2018, which is a considerable period of time and a large volume of work. This is why Blackpool has been moved to ‘fit in’ – to avoid peaks and troughs of demand.”
Jurkowski added: “We have to time the works to match the availability of the supply chain. Take electrification: there are other electrification programmes elsewhere in the country, and we’ve got to be careful about over-promising and about ensuring the supply chain can cope.
“Signalling is another area that’s quite stretched at the moment. We’ve got a long-term plan with suppliers – who are now on board with the whole programme – to be able to confirm delivery.
“We can then sequence and co-ordinate the delivery in a co-ordinated manner, rather than have lots of individual projects trying to do their own thing and suit themselves.”
Public engagement
The Blackpool re-phasing had another driver too – business. The works will require closing Blackpool North, because the entire throat of the station is being remodelled to improve its operation and also to lengthen two platforms
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