This achievement took place on Sunday 7 July between Church Fenton and Colton Junction, where trains from Leeds join the East Coast Main Line into York. This is one of the busiest stretches of railway in the north, with over 100 trains using the line each day.
This brings us a step closer to a cleaner, fully-electrified railway between York, Leeds and Manchester. The overhead wires, which now carry 25,000 volts, will allow more environmentally-friendly electric and hybrid trains to run at speeds of up to 125mph – that’s 30mph faster than they can currently run – reducing journey times.
Over the last 3 years our TRU East Alliance has installed 350 piled foundations to support this new overhead line system, including 300 new cantilever and portal structures, to support the 37 miles of new contact catenary wires along this four-track stretch of line. Work was carried out overnight and at weekends to minimise disruption to passengers as much as possible.
To maintain an equally eco-friendly construction, they assembled the new overhead line equipment locally at their nearby Joseph Lynn Logistics Hub in Sherburn-in-Elmet and transported it to site by train.
Local communities and businesses were made aware of the switch-on and safety talks were given to children at nearby schools.
TransPennine Express are working closely with Network Rail as enterprise partners to ensure the smooth introduction of electric operation in this area with Class 802 trains. When complete across the full 70-mile route across the Pennines, rail passengers will be helping to save up to 87,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – the equivalent to 5.9 million car journeys along the same route. For people living near the railway, it will also mean better air quality and quieter trains.
