Passengers urged to check before they travel as final upgrades take place on Hope Valley Railway Upgrade

The Hope Valley Railway Upgrade is nearing completion with closures planned along the route to facilitate the last stages of work.

Passenger trains between Manchester and Sheffield will be affected while the final track and infrastructure is installed, and signalling work completed on the project.

Parts of the railway line will be closed on the following dates:

• 11pm Friday 19^th January – 1am Monday 22^nd January 2024
• 11pm Friday 26^th January – 1am Monday 29^th January 2024
• 11:30pm Saturday 3^rd February – 1am Monday 5^th February 2024
• 11:30pm Saturday 10^th February – 1am Monday 12^th February 2024
• 11pm Friday 15^th March – 5:15am Monday 25^th March 2024
• 11pm Friday 26^th April – 8pm Wednesday 1^st May 2024

Fewer trains will be running with some services replaced by buses or diverted via alternative routes.

Passengers are encouraged to visit nationalrail.co.uk before they travel for more information about changes to journeys.

This includes football fans whose train journeys will be affected as they travel from Stockport to Meadow Lane on 20^th January, to watch the match between Stockport County & Notts County.

Throughout the closures, the project team will be focused on Dore & Totley and Grindleford to complete earthworks, track upgrades and station improvements. Signalling work will also take place between New Mills Newtown and Manchester Piccadilly.

Graeme Whitehead, Senior Sponsor for Network Rail said:

“Over the past two years, the project team have been working hard to deliver significant improvements along the Hope Valley railway line to enable more reliable journeys between Manchester and Sheffield.

“It has been exciting to see the advancements made to date and, as we look ahead to the last months of the scheme, we look forward to seeing the benefits realised for passengers.”

The upcoming work follows major progress made over recent months on the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade.

During line closures over Christmas and New Year, an underbridge was successfully extended in Dore & Totley while work has progressed to build a new, accessible footbridge off-site, which will be installed later this month.  Work on the lifts and a second platform at the station is nearing completion.

The last pieces of track have also been laid for a passing loop in Bamford, which will enable trains to pass slower freight traffic along the route. Work continues at Dore on a second passing loop, to alleviate a long-standing bottleneck.