Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
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by Lib Dem team on 17 May, 2012
The Department for Transport has formally announced a trial for tram-trains between Sheffield and Rotherham. This is the technology that allows cheaper, lighter trams to run on standard railway tracks as well as tram tracks.
Following discussions we’ve had with the minister, Norman Baker, we know that this trial is an essential step on the way to getting a new station at Cheadle, and hopefully at Gatley and Adswood too. The overall scheme for us would most likely be for a tram-train route to run between Stockport and Altrincham on the Chester line.
The other local line likely to benefit from tram-trains is Manchester-Marple.
The full DfT press release can be read here.
13 Comments
Sheffield – Rotherham surely, not Doncaster?
Yes – now corrected.
Excellent news!
wow it’s about time we got some decent public transport links! but would much prefer a route to Manchester – is this going to happen?
A line between Altrincham and Stockport has the possibility to continue on to Manchester via Stockport. People need to remember these Tram-trains will run on existing tracks and there are no direct lines from Cheadle to Manchester. The only other viable option would be to build a spur from the line past Gatley onto the new Manchester Airport tram line but as the area is so built up it would be very costly. Fingers crossed the trials are successful.
Gaz is right – building new stations is costly enough, but building new railway lines for local trains sadly isn’t likely to happen anytime in the next few decades.
However, the Metrolink extension to Parrs Wood should be completed around 2016, so there will then be a tram running from Parrs Wood to the centre of Manchester.
(Gatley station was originally called “Gatley for Cheadle Station – so the issue of a train link from Cheadle to Manchester has been around for a while!)
But the trains to Chester already start at Piccadilly, travel to Stockport, and then come through Cheadle & Gatley on their way to Altrincham. All we need is the new stations, why the expense of trams?
Hi John,
It’s to do with how a good service can be economically provided. We could spend a lot of money providing additional stops for a very infrequent service, but the economics of that don’t stack up.
What we want is a frequent service that allows people to use it effectively to get around. Because of the much lower cost of buying and running tram-trains against the current trains, that looks to be the one effective way of achieving that.
The tram would bring jobs and support local people into getting to and from work on public transport .
Releaving our rush hour jams around Gatley and Cheadle .
Great news
Ok, but I wouldn’t call every half hour an infrequent service. It’s the same as Gatley to Manchester/the airport. The rolling stock, track, etc already exist. I’m just thinking of the cost for 2 cheap platforms at Cheadle & Gatley versus overhead electrics, new trams, etc and the disruption (or even removal (?) of an existing service. That’s what happened when the trams took over the tracks through Sale to Altrincham, and the Chester trains had to change their route to the current one. New stations would give us an alternative to the buses for Altrincham and Stockport.
re:JB – agreed – are you by any chance be a fellow ‘anorak’ ?!
A half-hourly all/most stations service using conventional trains would methinks suffice.
An additional track and two platforms at the new Cheadle station would probably be required.
A Chester – Chester ‘tear-drop’ service would be fine – Chester, Warrington, Manchester, Stockport, Altrincham, Knutsford, Northwich, Chester and vice versa.
Anorak?!! No, just think that using what’s there is sufficient. Trams are fine on new routes and on the roads, but why interrupt an existing rail service which has already been moved once before. Where would the Chester trains be routed then?
A few quick comments (and I’m not a train expert):
The most important elements for getting a new rail service are getting it on the agenda and then making the economic case – there are many more places wanted rail services than are going to get them, so that’s why we need to keep on fighting our corner.
The rail companies and their engineers will know how much it costs to build a new station to modern safety standards – I don’t know how much it is, but it’s millions rather than hundreds of thousands for sure.
The proposed tram-trains will almost certainly be diesel so no need for the line to be electrified.
An hourly minute service that stops at four local stations between Stockport and Altrincham is totally different to one that runs direct: it takes longer, needs more engines and rolling stock and costs a lot more to operate. That’s why the lower-cost tram-train option makes sense and why the numbers don’t stack up if you use regular trains.