Where is Network Rail’s £11bn Transpennine Route Upgrade up to?
Enhanced stations, route electrification, and track improvements – 2025 was a busy year for the railway programme, which aims to improve journeys on the 76-mile stretch that includes Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds, and York.
What is it?
The £10.7bn Transpennine Route Upgrade project is due to complete in the 2030s, having electrified the entirety of the railway line, doubled the number of tracks at certain locations to enable faster trains to overtake slower ones, installed digital signalling, and improved accessibility across the 23 stations on the route.
The TRU masterplan also has ambitions to improve freight travel in the North, by widening tunnels and creating 15 more freight paths. This work, Network Rail estimates, will remove the need for more than 1,000 lorries a day.
What’s been done so far?
More than a quarter of the 76-mile route has now been electrified. This includes the section from Manchester Victoria to Stalybridge and from Church Fenton to York – the latter of which completed in August last year.
In October, a £46m train maintenance centre at Hillhouse Depot opened in October near Huddersfield.
Work has also been ongoing regarding improving Huddersfield Station, with the station partially reopening on 29 September after a 30-day closure. This was to enable the rebuilding and extension of three platforms at the station, a variety of track upgrades, and the installation of digital signalling. This year, another platform will receive upgrades as will the station’s track and canopy. This aspect of the scheme should complete in early 2027.
Also in Huddersfield, the viaduct had new bridge beams installed.
Network Rail’s team closed out 2025 by realigning tracks at Mirfield and demolition Whitacre Street overbridge in Deighton. The group has also installed 70 signals and remodelled more than three kilometres of track at Church Fenton station, which itself had two platforms realigned.
Overall, TRU has seen the installation of 40 miles of track and the laying of 30 miles of cable roughing. Network Rail also built 1,000 overhead line equipment foundations to support electrification across the route.
“This year has produced so many achievements and what we’re doing across the programme will not just improve journey times and reliability, but better connect towns and cities across the North,” said James Richardson, managing director for the Transpennine Route Upgrade.
“TRU is a key enabler to unlock potential in our communities and support regional economic growth, and we are looking forwards to another successful year in 2026.”
What can we expect in 2026?
Work will continue on improving Huddersfield Station. Network Rail has also commenced build a 1,150-feet viaduct over the River Calder at Ravensthorpe, a project that is due to complete in summer 2027. Expect to see updates on the extension of Ravensthorpe Station as well, which is being rebuilt to be accessible. The station will reopen in March 2028.
so in other words they only managed to electrify 20 miles of track in a year .
By Wislon
Must be the most under-appreciated piece of investment in the North, and if you live along that line you are effectively going to be able to work in either Manchester or Leeds, the Stalybridge leg is going to be very useful for Bee Network, as it kind of gives you a Wigan-Stalybridge S-Bahn via Victoria.
By Rich X
Great to see the investment in the north, but £144 million pound per mile on a route that already exists, such an absurd amount of money!
It’s terrifying how much it costs to get things done these days.
By Anonymous
Meanwhile, dozens of countries are building high speed track faster, further and for much less than £11bn. This should have been done decades ago.
By Matthew
There are two routes from Manchester to Liverpool. Only one of them is electrified. Why?
By Stephen lee
The cost of delaying or not-investing in national infrastructure is never calculated or mentioned. Cost-benefit anylsis for silly folk. Issue UK Government Infrastructure Bonds at 3 percent plus inflation, who would not want some, and get this rail upgrade built now and reap the immediated benefit of higher tax revenue as the taxed money flows back into the UK Treasury. A no-brainer. If you do not believe little me: ask Oxford Economics, the world’s foremost independent economic advisory firm.
By Anonymous
The basic electrification of this route should have happened 50 years ago and other infrastructure elements gradually improved as required. The trouble is that our politicians have no concept of ‘continuous improvement’ and like to adopt the ‘Big Bang’ which is always going to be a more expensive and disruptive strategy and leads to ‘white elephants’ such as HS2 which will benefit the few at the expense of the many.
By Robert Bush