Transpennine north railway upgrade

Transpennine north railway upgrade is a proposed upgrade to the northern route over the Pennines that will include electrification to the railway line between Manchester Victoria station, Stalybridge, Huddersfield, Leeds and York and so includes the Huddersfield line. It is planned to include 4 tracking in places as well as worn rail replacement and easing of curves to generally improve journey times. Parts of the cost of upgrading have been quoted at £2.9 billion total. The section between Leeds and Huddersfield has been given a £589 million boost to speed the project along. The route covers difficult terrain and includes Standedge tunnel and the Grade 1 listed Huddersfield station. Other structures along the route are also listed. 
It is considered part of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project. The Northern Hub project also interfaces with the upgrade. Reopening the Woodhead line as a potential alternative Transpennine crossing was ruled out early on. The Hope Valley line although a trans-pennine route goes through even more difficult terrain including Totley Tunnel and is usually considered the southern trans-pennine route. Although there are potential synergies, this project is not the same as Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Upgrade and other proposals.
Background.
The initial proposal in the 21st century, was to electrify the line from Manchester Victoria to Leeds via Huddersfield with some infill schemes around Manchester. This was announced in the 2011 Autumn statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The cost was cited as £290 million and the project was planned to start in 2014. In the 2012 (HLOS) High Level Output Specification, it was announced there would be the addition of electrification from Leeds to Selby. In March 2015, the Chancellor George Osborne announced there would be an additional rolling programme of improvement and electrification to Hull. In July 2012, the UK government announced £4.2 billion of electrification schemes, all at 25 kV AC. The Trans-Pennine route from Manchester to York and Selby via Leeds was announced at this time. In November 2014, the then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg reported on the Coalition government's desire to see the whole route upgraded and electrified.
Start of work.
On various parts of the route, including between Leeds and York, bridge raising and other civil engineering works were started in March 2015. Other bridges in Tameside between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge were also worked on. The Secretary of State for Transport at the time Patrick McLoughlin, paused the project in June 2015, stating that electrification on its own brought hardly any benefits. The issue was raised in Parliament on 9 June 2015 where Andrew Jones, a transport minister, said that work to develop the scheme had been going on since 2011. On 30 September 2015, the then Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin announced that the scheme had been unpaused but with a revised completion date. A Permanent Way Institution seminar in 2017 had a portion devoted to the scheme and included a question and answer session.
Civils contracts were awarded for various parts of the route in 2017. Various local authorities have provided updates too. On a visit to Leeds on 2 March 2018, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the upgrade would continue.
2020 and beyond work in progress.
As of 2021, nearly ten years after the Autumn statement announcement, the line is still being upgraded in stages. York to Church Fenton is having piling done early 2021. In order to support overhead line electrification (OLE), Network Rail started to install masts in February 2021. A consultation has been launched with residents on the plan to close Lady Anne level crossing and Batley signal box as part of the upgrade. In January and February 2021, considerable work was being done in the Miles Platting area, with a compound constructed. A Permanent Way Institution lecture on the topic of Miles Platting area improvements was held and published. It was announced by Network Rail on 12 March 2021 that there would be a piling programme lasting up to seven months starting in the Miles Platting area on 24 April 2021. In addition, there would be a sixteen day total closure of the line between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale and Stalybridge from 31 July to 15 August 2021. 
The strategic director of the route David Hoggarth, confirmed mid March that work on the embankment in the Miles Platting area was already underway and that piling in the Collyhurst and Miles Platting area was to follow to pave the way for wires all the way to Stalybridge. He called the whole route a key strategic building block and that the full extent of the upgrade would be published with the Integrated Rail Plan. Network Rail said that there would be significant disruption over at least a five year period. However, the TWAO published March 2021 said that work on some of the scheme would extend beyond 2029 i.e. in one of the later Network Rail Control Periods 8.
Recommendations for rolling electrification.
The Transport Select Committee met in March 2021 and published a report in the series of 'Trains Fit for the Future" enquiry. This report recommended a rolling programme of electrification. There was also a call for the DfT to publish without delay a list of “no regret” electrification schemes and then for the industry to act on them. The report also reached the mainstream media with headlines of “MPs call for a rolling programme of electrification”.
Transport Works Act Order.
On 31 March 2021, a TWAO (an order under the Transport and Works Act 1992) was submitted with plans showing the scope of the works. The whole scheme document was split up into portions. Sections W1, W2a, W3, W4, W5 and E1 were permitted to proceed to the design stage. Sections W2b and E2-E4 were permitted to develop to GRIP 3 status. As part of the upgrade, eleven stations along the route will require a review of options for persons of reduced mobility such as step-free access and other enhancements. W2b is the section of line between Stalybridge and Huddersfield and the final scheme scope to GRIP 3 was still being worked on. The W3 section between Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe, is proposed to include 4 tracking, grade separation and electrification has been costed at £1.459 billion. Network Rail confirmed on 26 April 2021 that piling between Collyhurst and Miles Platting would be completed by the end of 2021.
Sections being upgraded or considered.
The Transport Works Act Order (TWAO) published in March 2021 covered the following sections:
Technical aspects.
Power supply.
The electrical power for the scheme on the west side is being provided from the grid feeder in the Stalybridge area at Heyrod. It was visited by Jonathan Reynolds, the local MP for the constituency on 27 May 2016.
The latest plans in the TWAO call for a SFC (Static Frequency Converter) in the Ravensthorpe vicinity rather than a full grid feeder station.
Bridges.
There are a number of bridges being upgraded and strengthened or otherwise modified as part of the project. In the Manchester area they include the bridge at Dantzic Street in the centre of Manchester. In the Miles Platting area, Queens Road bridge is being modified, as is the Bromley Street subway and also at Oldham Road. Between Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe there will be at least twelve.
Gantry design.
As Huddersfield station is a Grade I listed building, a special design was submitted that precludes the use of headspan overhead line gantries and uses a bespoke design.