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Hope Valley Line
The line at Bamford in the Hope Valley
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Greater Manchester Derbyshire South Yorkshire
Termini	Manchester Piccadilly Sheffield
Stations	28
Service
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	East Midlands Railway Northern Trains TransPennine Express
Depot(s)	Longsight
Rolling stock	Class 150 Class 156 Class 158 Class 170 Class 185 Class 195
History
Opened	6 November 1893 (goods) 1 June 1894 (passengers)
Technical
Number of tracks	Double-track
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV AC OHLE (Western part), from Manchester Piccadilly to Hazel Grove, Ashburys and Guide Bridge
Operating speed	90 mph (140 km/h) 125 mph (201 km/h) (Manchester Piccadilly to Stockport) 40 mph (64 km/h) (Hazel Grove to Edgeley Junction)
Route map (Click to expand)

v t e Hope Valley Line
Legend
Liverpool– Manchester lines Manchester Piccadilly Ardwick Styal line to Huddersfield line (freight only) Levenshulme Ashburys Heaton Chapel Belle Vue Gorton Ryder Brow Fairfield (1841–1892) (1892–) Reddish North to Huddersfield line (freight only) Reddish South Denton Stockport Guide Bridge Mid-Cheshire line Stockport– Stalybridge line Stafford– Manchester line Stalybridge Jct Rly Glossop line Brinnington Hyde North Bredbury Hyde Central Davenport Woodley Woodsmoor Hazel Grove Romiley to Mid-Cheshire line (freight only) Rose Hill Marple (MB&MR) Buxton line Marple Strines 3866 yd 3535 m Disley Tunnel Greater Manchester Derbyshire New Mills Central Hayfield branch Chinley Great Rocks Line (freight only) Cowburn Tunnel 3702 yd 3385 m Edale Earle's Sidings Hope Bamford Hathersage Grindleford 6230 yd 5697 m Totley Tunnel Wakefield line Derbyshire South Yorkshire Sheffield Midland Main Line Dore and Totley

The Hope Valley Line is a trans-Pennine railway line in Northern England, linking Manchester with Sheffield. It was completed in 1894.

Passenger services on the line are operated by Northern Trains, East Midlands Railway and TransPennine Express, while the quarries around Hope, producing stone and cement, provide a source of freight traffic.

From Sheffield, the line follows the Midland Main Line through the south-west of the city to Dore & Totley, where the Hope Valley Line branches off to run through the Totley Tunnel, the fourth-longest tunnel in England. It emerges in the Hope Valley area of Derbyshire, where it passes through the stations of Grindleford, Hathersage, Bamford, Hope and Edale before entering the two-mile-long Cowburn Tunnel. From the western portal of the tunnel, the line runs through Chinley, then splits. The northern branch runs via New Mills Central towards Manchester Piccadilly. The southern branch passes through the Disley Tunnel before merging with the Buxton line just south of Hazel Grove and then heading to Stockport to join the West Coast Main Line to Manchester.

This section was built by the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee as part of the Midland Railway's drive to reach Manchester with its line from London via Ambergate and Millers Dale. Initially, in 1867, it joined the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway at Hyde Junction, running into Manchester London Road, but in 1875 a more direct route was built through Bredbury. When Manchester Central was opened by the Cheshire Lines Committee, a new line was built through Heaton Mersey. This third route was closed along with Manchester Central, apart from the section through Disley Tunnel to Hazel Grove, where it now joins the old LNWR line into Stockport.

In 1872, the Midland Railway's only route from Sheffield to Manchester was via Ambergate. It had originally proposed a line to run from Dore to Hassop, meeting its extension from Rowsley to Buxton. However, the "Dore and Chinley Railway" was floated independently in 1872 and, unsuccessfully, until the Midland took an interest, since it would provide a more direct route, connecting through Chinley into Manchester.^[1] The line was authorised in 1884 and work began in 1888.^[2]

The 21-mile (34 km) line took five years to build, opening to goods traffic in November 1893, with passenger traffic being carried from June 1894.^[3] The terrain through Hope Valley and the Vale of Edale was easy enough by Midland standards, but at each end there were formidable obstacles, negotiated by means of the Totley and Cowburn Tunnels.

At the time of the Beeching review, the line was running in competition with the recently modernised and faster Woodhead Line and its closure was suggested.^[4] On appeal, British Rail was required to keep the Hope Valley Line open to passenger traffic; it was decided that the Woodhead route would be closed to passenger traffic instead^[5] and then subsequently to all traffic in 1981, due to the high cost of further upgrading the line to modern standards.^[6][7][8]

In the early 1980s, proposals were put forward to convert the Piccadilly–Belle Vue–Rose Hill/Marple section of the Hope Valley Line to light rail operation for the proposed Manchester Metrolink system. While construction of Metrolink went ahead, the Hope Valley Line was not included in the system which was completed in 1992.^[9] When in 2000, proposals for a large-scale extension of Metrolink were announced by the government, these still did not include conversion of the Hope Valley Line; but, subsequently, planning documents from Network Rail and from the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority have suggested that this route might be appropriate for tram-train operation, and, as such, it was suggested to the Department for Transport as a possible location for a national tram-train pilot.^[10]

On 1 August 2019, the line was closed between Marple and Sheffield amid fears that the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir would collapse, following heavy rain, which would flood the town of Whaley Bridge. The Buxton line, between Hazel Grove and Buxton, was also closed because of this. The line was re-opened on 7 August 2019.^[11]

In 2005 planning applications for various parts of a capacity and modernisation scheme were submitted.^[12] In 2015, a consultation pack on the capacity enhancement of the line was released by Network Rail.^[13]

Nottinghamshire County Council and the Department for Transport have investigated the possibility of adding another service that does not call at Sheffield in order to improve the journey time between Nottingham and Manchester. Stopping (and changing direction) in Sheffield, the fastest journey is 110 minutes (as of 2019^[update]), but the council has estimated bypassing Sheffield would cut the time to 85 minutes. Suggested improvements on a 2+1⁄2-mile (4 km) stretch near Stockport may reduce journey times by 2–3 minutes.^[14][15]

In 2018, proposals were published for works necessary to create a 3,600 feet (1,100 m) passing loop between Bamford and Hathersage, to extend the extant platform at Dore to cope with six-coach trains, to redouble the track and to reinstate the second platform and footbridge at Dore and Totley station (the track having been singled and platform demolished in the 1980s).^[16] This was intended to improve capacity on the line by removing a major bottleneck. It allowed passenger trains to pass slower-moving freight and allowed three fast trains per hour between Manchester and Sheffield, in addition to a stopping passenger train.^[17] Improvements were also made to Jaggers Lane Bridge in Hathersage.^[18] Planning permission for the upgrade was granted in February 2018, but delays meant that the works were not completed until 2024.^[19] The necessary Transport and Works Act was also published in 2018.^[20][21]

In March 2021, it was announced by Minister of State for Transport, Andrew Stephenson, that £137 million would be allocated to upgrade the line.^[22] A joint venture between Volker Rail and Story Contracting was awarded an £80 million contract for the delayed Hope Valley upgrade.^[23] Work started on 29 May 2022 and was completed by early April 2024.^[24][25]

Around 66% of the works output (1,000,000 tonnes (1,100,000 tons) per year) of cement from Hope Cement Works a year is taken away by rail from the seven-road Earle's Sidings at Hope.^[26][27] When G & T Earle opened Earle's Cement works in 1929, it was linked to the Hope Valley Line by a 1 mi 52 chains (2.7 km) single track railway, which was worked by steam until 1963.^[28][29] Most of the cement now travels over it in trains hauled by Class 20 locomotives^[30] to Earle's Sidings,^[27] where it is taken over by Freightliner.^[31]

The following passenger services traverse all or part of the Hope Valley Line:

• Great Rocks Line
• Transpennine Route Upgrade

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hope Valley Line.

• Joy, David (1984). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 8: South and West Yorkshire (2 ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-946537-11-9.