Glossop Chronicle: Not the end of the line

Another overly-optimistic article, this time from today's Glossop Chronicle, about politicians statements on Woodhead, by David Jones:

A government minister has signalled the green light for trains to again run through Woodhead Tunnel.

Re-opening the link under the Pennines seemed a non-starter when the National Grid announced plans to string power lines through it.

But in a House of Commons debate, Transport Secretary Rosie Winterton hinted that trains could be on track sometime in the future.

She told MPs: “National Grid’s plans will not jeopardise the possibility that the Woodhead Tunnel will reopen to rail traffic at some future date.”

It was a response that delighted Sheffield Hillsborough MP Angela Smith, who sponsored the debate, and Tom Levitt.

High Peak’s MP - who also took part in the discussion - said: “This is a victory for common sense and forward thinking. Our task now is to demonstrate to government and Network Rail that Woodhead is not only a possible option but the best option for improving Trans-Pennine freight movement.”

The news means that measures will effectively be put in place to make sure that any reopening of the Woodhead Tunnel as a railway link is not jeopardised by National Grid’s plans.

National Grid’s proposals to transfer their high voltage cables from the Victorian tunnels to the 1953 tunnel will carry on.

But in such a way that they won’t stop trains travelling through the tunnel sometime in the future. The power company will complete their work in 2010 or 2011.

From that point the older tunnels will no longer have a use but will continue to be inspected and maintained.

This will ensure that if and when the 1953 tunnel is required for the reinstallation of a rail track, the high voltage cables can be transferred back into the older tunnels in a cost effective way.

The Transport Minister’s statement marks a successful outcome by those who think a rail link through Woodhead Tunnel could boost the economies of the North West and Yorkshire.

Campaigners, backed by Mr Levitt and many Glossopdale residents, believe that rail freight is the best environmental option for carrying in bulk.

Glossop Chronicle: Woodhead Tunnel protest spells it out (David Jones)

An article from today's Glossop Chronicle about last Saturday's demonstration at Woodhead, by David Jones:

**this article mistakenly calls our campaign 'Friends of the Woodhead Tunnel' - we are 'Save the Woodhead Tunnel'. Also, the demonstration group was not 'organised by groups opposed to the Longdendale Bypass' as it states, although anti-bypass groups and individuals were and are involved**

Sixty protesters took a trip to the closed and shuttered Woodhead Tunnel entrance on Saturday to say why the line should be re-opened.

And many more arrived after the official demonstration to demand the National Grid (sic) halt plans to push power cables through it.

They were unanimous that the rail bed under the Pennines should get a new lease of life - trains carrying lorries between South Yorkshire and Manchester.

And they called for a national rail strategy ensuring the 1954 tunnel becomes the centerpiece of a Trans-Pennine high speed link, connecting the North West to east coast ports and ultimately the continent. They want politicians to work together towards this common aim.

The protest meeting was organised by groups opposed to the Longdendale Bypass under the blanket name 'Friends of the Woodhead Tunnel'.

For more than an hour speaker after speaker stressed the importance of re-opening the 53 year-old tunnel to freight and taking trucks off the A628.

And they had a message for the power giants planning to switch tunnels because the nearby Victorian versions they currently use are deteriorating - FIX THEM!

The groups are united in the belief that road building is not the 'quick-fix solution' to congestion problems. Translink - fronted by local resident Julian Newton - has produced a business plan for reopening the line. Its website has links to Hupak which provides similar roll-on, roll-off lorry services in Italy and Switzerland.

MEP Chris Davies said the Woodhead Tunel track was the only electrified main line in Europe to have closed. He said Woodhead should be the basis of a Norther high speed line.

He added that while Britain's rail system only had 68 miles passed for high speeds - the Channel Tunnel link - France has 1,000 miles with another 5000 planned.

Mr Davies criticised the 'short-sighted, short-term thinking' of successive governments', when the region should have been provided with modern, continental style links.

Saving Woodhead he maintained was the last opportunity to look to the future. But instead of government departments engaging in 'sensible, joined up thinking,' there was the 'nonsense of the National Grid taking decisions in isolation.'

The meeting called for the old Victorian tunnels to repaired and cables kept where they are.

Stephen Joseph of the Campaign for Better Transport demanded that the Government should intervene - because rail transport produced seven times less CO2 than road.

Local representatives of the Green Party denied that the Longdendale Trail (built on the track bed) would be destroyed if the line from Woodhead and into Hadfield was re-opened.

Anne Robinson of the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England suggested a compromise - temporarily moving the cables to the 'new' tunnel while remedial work on the Victorian tunnels was carried out.

Colin Elliff, a railway civil engineer who has produced detailed plans for upgrading Britain's rail links, agree that this might be a possible way forward. But he insisted that a 'revived' Woodhead electrified line, complete with its tunnel which had been designed to take the largest continental rolling stock, as the key to the development of a properly linked system of high-speed lines in the North.

Many at the meeting recalled with regret that protests that were organised first against the loss of the line's passenger service in 1970 and in 1981 when the line itself was axed.

The general feeling was that it was time these two 'enormous mistakes' were addressed and out right. And that the line through Woodhead should be seen as an asset in Britain's rail revival.

This would bring the UK in step with the forward looking rail policies of the country's European partners.

Glossop Chronicle: Bypass groups wrangle over Woodhead Tunnel (David Jones)

An article from today's Glossop Chronicle about our demonstration at Woodhead on 12th January, by David Jones:

Can National Grid's plans to push 400,000 volt cables through Woodhead Tunnel be scrapped and track re-opened for freight trains?

The nation's biggest power providers and Longdendale Siege boss Mike Flynn both say no.

But Save the Woodhead Tunnel and other Mottram to Tintwistle Bypass protestors, say yes.

And they are demanding a feasibility study be commissioned to see if the line can be re-opened - before the government spends more than £100m on the relief road. Protestors claim sending trains under the Pennines along the old Manchester to Sheffield line via Dinting and Hadfield will stop thousands of tonnes of CO2 funnelling into the air from bypass traffic.

And on Saturday they will be staging a climate changing demonstration at the Woodhead end of the tunnel from 1 pm to 3 pm.

There will be a samba band to liven things and an array of yet to be announced speakers.

Save the Woodhead Tunnel organisers are asking supporters to go along, either by walking or cycling, to the tunnel mouth along the six mile Longdendale Trail.

Or by car along the A628, turning down the steep approach road to the station.

But they warn that care is needed, the route is tricky and parking is limited.

Mr Flynn believes that however well intentioned some of the protesters are, they will be wasting their time.

He can see no possibility of the tunnel - closed in 1981 and the track bed to Hadfield turned into the Longdendale Trail - ever re-opening.

And he supports the need of the National Grid (sic) to remove their cables from the 'first' Victorian built tunnel which is deteriorating.

The thread them through the 'new' tunnel opened in the 1950s, which would prevent trains from using the tunnel.

"We have heard all the talk about re-opening the tunnel for trains before and it won't happen, it is just not feasible," he said.

"They (anti-bypass groups) talk about building a terminal at Hattersley where lorries can roll on and roll off, there is no chance.

"And if the tunnel did open again for trains, there would still be all that traffic coming through Glossop.

"The people who go on about opening Woodhead, never mention that."

Mr Flynn points to statements from the Government and Network Rail on transport plans covering the next 30 years which show no plans to re-open the tunnel.

He went on: "These people talk about a bypass ripping up the countryside, yet they make no mention of ripping up the Longdendale Trail to re-open the line.

"It's about time these protesters accepted what the vast majority of people in the valley want and that's a Longdendale Bypass and a Glossop Spur."