£589m for railway upgrade July 24, 2020
Plans have already been drawn up for a return to four tracks instead of two for the most congested section of route between Huddersfield and Dewsbury, where Calder Valley and Wakefield routes also converge and diverge with the line. Four tracks will allow fast trains to overtake slower ones. Most of the line will be electrified.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps also announced the establishment of a new Northern Transport Acceleration Council (NTAC) dedicated to speeding up infrastructure projects to better connect the North’s towns and cities.
The NTAC will hold its first meeting in September and will be made up of mayors and council leaders with the Transport Secretary as chair.
Full line electrification, digital signalling, more multi-track capacity and more room for freight trains are now under consideration as part of an Integrated Rail Plan due to report in December.
Grand Central, which operates trains from Bradford via Brighouse and Mirfield towards Wakefield, Doncaster and London, resumed some daily services from Sunday July 26. All services have been suspended since March, but the operator will start a return to service by running two of its four usual services each way each day.
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