Reports and Articles

  • Sheffield City Region

In July 2019, Sheffield City Region Mayor, Dan Jarvis, launched the Sheffield City Region Integrated Rail Plan. The plan recognises the need for investment in the local and regional rail network. Key elements of the plan include a further upgrade of the Hope Valley Line and significant upgrades of the railway station at Sheffield.

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  • The Minutes of the AGM 2019 

can be dowloaded: AGM 2019 Minutes

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  • Transport for the North – Strategic Transport Plan

Transport for the North is formed from the North’s 20 local transport authorities, business leaders, Network Rail, Highways England, HS2 Ltd and Central Government. It advises Government on transport priorities. In 2019 it launched its Strategic Transport Plan. The Plan shows that transport links in the North are inadequate and a major constraint on the economy. Although the number of rail users has increased, the lack of investment means that the network suffers from congestion, low speeds, poor punctuality and little capacity for growth.

The Plan aims to improve access to leisure, tourism and jobs, to connect businesses and help the movement of freight. It encourages improvements to the capacity and frequency of rail links between northern cities, including

  • Significant upgrades to the corridor of the Hope Valley Line between Sheffield and Manchester (via Stockport). 

The Plan identifies seven ‘Strategic Development Corridors’ that can link the northern centres, the Midlands and Scotland.

It commits to a ‘tap-in’ smart and integrated ticketing system to be used on all public transport in the North.

The plan is summarised in an article  in Today’s Railways UK

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  • Improving the rail service in the Hope Valley

In 2012 the Hope Valley Railway Users Group produced a report, ‘Improving the Rail Service in the Hope Valley‘. It was based on a survey of residents.  The survey produced an excellent response, from over 40% of households in some villages, of whom 60% said they would use the rail service more frequently if there were a better timetable.  At the time, before the 2018 timetable improvements, the stopping service used to be one of the least frequent in the country, despite it connecting the major cities of Sheffield and Manchester through a popular part of the Peak District. For substantial parts of the day and evening, and all day Sundays, the trains used to run only every two hours.

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  • Other articles

An excellent article in Today’s Railways UK magazine about the Hope Valley line is reproduced here by kind permission of the publishers Platform 5 Publishing.

The Derbyshire Times has an interesting article about the  Hope Valley line and how it avoided closure following Dr Beeching’s Report.