page_title: Northern Hub
section_title: Electrification
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Hub / Infrastructure / Electrification
caption_attribution_description: English: Manchester Victoria western approach lines.
context_page_description: The Northern Hub is a rail programme in Northern England to improve and increase train services and reduce journey times between its major cities and towns, by electrifying lines and removing a major rail bottleneck in Manchester. It is predicted to stimulate economic growth in the region. The project has several elements but the prime objective is to eradicate the bottleneck in Manchester and allow trains to travel through the city at speed without stopping. The project was announced as the Manchester Hub in 2009. The project's steering partnership involves Network Rail, Deutsche Bahn, First TransPennine Express, Northern Rail, East Midlands Trains, CrossCountry, Freightliner, the Department for Transport, Transport for Greater Manchester and Merseytravel.
  Services from Liverpool to Leeds and beyond will be diverted from the Liverpool to Manchester line southern route, via Warrington Central and Manchester Piccadilly, to the more direct electrified Liverpool to Manchester northern route, via Newton-le-Willows and Manchester Victoria; this will provide a fast route to and through Manchester.
context_section_description: Electrification for rail lines out of Manchester is underway or has been approved. While independent of the Northern Hub scheme, they complement it:
  Electrification of the Manchester to Liverpool line was announced by the Department for Transport in July 2009. The section from Manchester to Newton-le-Willows was completed in December 2013 and the section to Liverpool should have been completed by December 2014. The 32-mile line between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria via Huyton and Newton Le-Willows has a maximum speed limit of 75 mph. Following electrification and the introduction of Class 319 stock, trains will reach 90 mph cutting journey times from 47 to 32 minutes. The Manchester to Newton-le-Willows section was completed on 17 July 2013, it was marked by a ceremony at Eccles station at which the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt. Hon. Patrick McLoughlin MP, was present. Electrified Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow services have been running since the timetable change in December 2013. Due to delays the target date for completion of the section from Earlestown to Liverpool was missed but electric train services between Liverpool and Manchester Airport commenced in March 2015.
  The Liverpool to Wigan Line is electrified providing a second connection to the West Coast Main Line at Ince Moss Junction via St. Helens Central. The newly electrified line was operational by May 2015.
  Electrification of the Manchester to Preston Line via Bolton was announced in December 2009 and was expected to be completed by December 2017. Preparatory work on bridges and tunnels commenced in 2014. However, the work was delayed by geological problems and change of main contractor, electric service eventually commencing on 11 February 2019.
  Electrification of the line from Preston to Blackpool North was scheduled for completion by May 2016. It joins the Manchester to Preston Line providing an electrified route from Blackpool to Manchester and the West Coast Main Line.  This stage ran behind schedule (following a change of engineering contractor and the decision to combine track & signalling alterations with the electrification work) and the first electric train ran in May 2018. The scheme also involves major restructuring of the lines and rationalization at both Kirkham & Wesham station and Blackpool North. The branch to Blackpool South is not being electrified but is having new signaling at the same time and there was a total blockade of the line November 2017 - March 2018.
  The Huddersfield Line from Manchester Victoria to Leeds and York via Stalybridge was expected to be electrified between 2016 and 2018. Electrification was announced in November 2011, but the plan was paused by the government in 2015 because electrification on its own did not deliver the benefits that various stakeholders wanted.  The work was expected to be completed in 2022, after the DfT gave the go-ahead for work to resume in September 2015 . The section between Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge was to be completed much sooner as it is considered part of the other Northern schemes. In particular there is a grid feeder in the Stalybridge area. There was a blockade from 8 July until 30 July 2017  when work was done in the Ashton under Lyne area. Recent updates have shown that electrification will initially only go as far as the Miles Platting area and not all the way to Stalybridge. An updated plan is being submitted to the DfT late 2017.
caption: Newly installed overhead electrification into Manchester Victoria station, in October 2015
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