Why Upgrade Harrogate ?

Harrogate is a Victorian Spa Town with a population of 75,070 residents and is one of the fastest growing areas in Yorkshire and the Humber. It is also home to the Harrogate Convention Centre which is the main events centre for the Leeds City Region!

According to a study conducted using data from the 2011 census 62.9% of Harrogate commuters, commuter by car whilst only 2.5% commute by rail! Those who work outside of the district mainly commute to Leeds! 

Harrogate Borough Council has set a target of building 13,377 new homes between 2014 and 2035 under its local plan according to the Harrogate Advertiser! 

Harrogate was first reached with a line from Wetherby and Spofforth, with a station just South West of Prince of Wales roundabout, called Harrogate Brunswick that opened in 1848! Later came at second station as part of the , this was later renamed from Harrogate to Starbeck when the Leeds & Thirsk railway arrived passing through what is now 'The Great Yorkshire Showground' on its way to Thirsk via Ripon!  They're was even a short branch to Pateley Bridge that opened in 1862 and a branch to Masham in 1865! All what remains today is the line from Leeds to York via Harrogate, via Crimple Valley and Starbeck. Local commuter traffic is served by Northern with London services operated by LNER. 

The Station usage statistics for the Harrogate Line between Knaresborough and Leeds for the period between 2019-20 are as follows....

Knaresborough 439,486

Starbeck 214,644

Harrogate 1,770,554

Hornbeam Park 399,756

Pannal 164,174

Weeton 82,360

Horsforth 1,095,902

Headingley 377,432

Burley Park 686,932

Giving a total of 5, 231, 240, including Cattal, Hammerton & Poppleton would take this figure up to 5,395,708! 

Click here to view the latest Station Usage Statistics 

Electrification from Leeds to Harrogate

Upgrading and electrifying the Harrogate Line would enable pure electric trains such as the class 350/2s to operate, Britain's Most Reliable train of 2018 and winner of numerous Golden Spanner awards for reliability! These are four car trains that offer 246 standard class and 24 first class seats each, giving a total increase of 71 seats per train in comparison to the diesel class 170's that currently make up the main fleet on the line, that only have 199 standard seats each! These are trains that currently have no future home and would be ideal upon the Harrogate rail line!

Also owing to their high performance that outmatches class 333's that run on the adjacent Aire Valley and Wharf Valley lines, utilizing these trains could reduce the journey time between Leeds & Harrogate down by 7 minutes from the current 34/35 to 27/28 minutes as estimated by WSP based within the 2013 Harrogate Rail line business case, based upon the capability of the class 333s!   

Electrifying this line also means cleaner air at stations along the whole route, that runs through some heavily built up residential areas in Harrogate & Leeds! Whilst engineering trains will remain diesel for the time being, these are few and far between in comparison!

Double tracking from Knaresborough - York

Whilst the line from Leeds to Knaresborough via Harrogate is double track, the line from Knaresborough to York was singled around the 1960/70s, as a result services on this stretch have to be timed to pass on the 1.7 mile loop between Cattal and Hammerton or between Poppleton & York. If services are delayed between Knaresborough and York this can delay services heading to Leeds via Harrogate in the opposite direction. The lack of full double track also limits the number of services that can operate on this section of line. Redoubling this line would increase reliability and resilence of the whole line from Leeds to York via Harrogate whilst enabling more than 2 services an hour between Knaresborough and York! To achieve this will require 5.8 miles of new track between Knaresborough & Cattal and approximately 5.6 miles of track between Hammerton & Poppleton. This will require the line to be resignalled and brought into the 21st century. 

Re-signalling Harrogate - York

Whilst the line from Leeds to Harrogate was brought up to date and  resignalled in 2013 the line between Harrogate and York via Knaresborough wasn't and consquently remains to be operated by 19th century equipment, whilst this has been modernised slightly in recent years with the removal of the token block system which required a physical key or token to be carried by each service, this section of line is still reliant upon semaphore signals that are prone to failure from snapped metal cables that connect these signals to the signal boxes that control them. Re-signalling is also a prerequisite for full double tracking!

Improvements to Stations

Starbeck

Whilst some stations such as Knaresborough are attractive and inviting with its orignal Victorian canopies, others such as Starbeck that lost its Victorian splender in the 1960s/70s are less so. Starbeck is the ideal station for Network Rails new modular station design, that aim to improve the station enviroment and create a sense of place whilst being cheap and economic to maintain. 

Harrogate

Harrogate station has canopy provision only on Platform 1. Whilst Platform 3 that not only sees departing services towards Leeds but also departing and arriving services to and from London Kings Cross doesn't. As a result it creates an appalling first impression of Harrogate, not only this but the footbridge is open to the elements and not directly connected to the station concourse, unlike Wakefield Westgate that is covered and directly connected to the station concourse putting Harrogate to shame! Either Harrogate station needs modifying or substantially rebuilding! 

Horsforth

Horsforth is the 3rd busiest station on the line, the ticket office is on the Leeds bound platform 1 to gain access to it from Harrogate bound platform 2 requires a 170 meter detour via Station road and the very narrow pavement due to the lack of a footbridge. A footbridge would make it much easier for those living on the East side of the station when returning from Leeds and blue badge holders reaching the car park when arriving from York/Harrogate.

Step free trains

Northern are currently procuring new trains, this is the golden opportunity to offer step free trains for everyone by incorporating level boarding technology which is already in use in Greater Anglia and Merseyside! Step free trains make it easier to board but in particular by those with prams and those with wheelchairs and accessible scooters. Deploying ramps is also a time consuming process that should be avoided where possible! Incorporating level boarding technology has benefits for everyone! 

Knaresborough Viaduct

The grade 2 listed viaduct at Knaresborough is one of the most photographed viaducts in the country, along with its stunning surroundings. Electrification of the Harrogate line doesn't necessarily affect this viaduct! Whilst electrifying the line through Knaresborough and over this viaduct would make the entire line from Leeds to York via Harrogate much simpler, as then pure electric trains could operate without the need for diesel engines or batteries. Network Rail is only recommending electrification as far as Harrogate within their Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy. Electrifying the line to Harrogate would allow pure electric trains to be operated between Harrogate and London Kings Cross via Leeds and bi-mode trains to operate on electric power between Leeds and Harrogate before switching to alternative power between Harrogate and York. Currently Northern are in the process of procuring new trains of which 32 are expected to be bi-mode, 74 multi mode and 45 pure electric! 

Prior to the pandemic Network Rail estimated within their 'Leeds Area Strategic Study' that by 2033 high peak services from... 

Horsforth would have over 3 passengers per sqm on average.          

Headingley would have between 2 and 3 passengers per sqm on average. 

Burley Park would have over 3 passengers per sqm on average!  

By 2043 it has been estimated that from Horsforth all high peak services will have over 3 passengers per square meter on average!  

Out of all the lines entering Leeds, the Harrogate Line was estimated to become the most overcrowded if nothing is done! 

Electrify the Harrogate line was estimated to cost £93.34 million in 2013 which is £109,463,626.23 accounting for inflation at the time of writing based upon the Bank of England Inflation Calculator. 

Whilst diesel traction is to be discouraged, to build brand new diesel trains would require around 7/8 in total to run the planned pre-covid timetable, giving a requirement of 28/32 cars to be built. 

The cost of building a single car for Transpennine Expresses brand new bi-modes was £2.36 million. Making a four car train over £8 million, to build around 28/32 vehicles at this price will cost around £56/64 million! 

Therefore electrifying and upgrading the Harrogate Rail line is only £45/53 million more in comparison for a line that is only 39 miles/62 kilometers in length! 

Making the cost of electrification per single track kilometer between £0.7 & £0.8 million, in-line with the Rail Industry Association 'Electrification Cost Challenge Report' that reports how electrification should cost between 750k and £1 million per single track kilometer with more complex projects not exceeding £1.5 million!

Upgrading the line to enable operation by pure electric trains will allow the 3 car class 170s to be cascaded onto other parts of the rail network to either add capacity or replace much older and far more polluting stock on lines such as the Blackpool South line, the Preston to Colne line or the Penistone line, delivering a capacity increase and significantly higher quality experience, that could help entice a transition from road to rail in turn generate more revenue for Northern, which is owned by goverment.  

Class 350/2s are capable of running up to 110mph and are therefore ideal for running on the East Coast Mainline.  With this capability it may be feasible to operate a direct service from Harrogate to Hull via Selby once the Leeds - Hull line has also been electrified, something which is now to be delivered under the 'Network North' proposals.   

Electrifying this line also allows the line to be integrated with the adjacent Aire Valley, Wharf Valley & Bradford Forster Square services, as by having compatible infrastructure allows Northern to operate one type of train on these four lines that already share the same platforms at Leeds station, potentially reducing the need to train drivers for different trains , thus increasing resilience during times of disruption as drivers can only operate the types of trains they have been passed to drive! 

Another benefit of pure electric trains is that these trains don't have to head back to depot everyday to be refueled, this allows them to be stabled away from the depot more often and makes it easier to provide alternative servicing facilities. Heading to and from the depots decreases capacity across the rail network and can often result in late running morning services as is currently the case in Leeds. 

Lengthening services

Whilst it may be possible to lengthen most of the platforms along the route in particular to Harrogate, the platforms at Knaresborough can't be lengthened due to being stuck between a tunnel and a level crossing! Therefore services  can't be operated by anything longer than four car trains unless trains with selective door opening technology is used. 

Unfortunately this technology is only present in the most modern trains, and retro-fitting it into existing trains isn't economical due to the complexity/labor/cost involved. Even if it is used, this still causes accessibility issues as it requires users who require assistance to ride in a specific part of the train, something that might not be possible and would most likely be overlooked by rail staff and the public themselves! Therefore this technology ideally should be avoided! 

Operating trains longer than 4 cars would also be problematic at Knaresborough where some services turnback towards Leeds as anything more than 4 cars would obstruct the level crossing. 

Hydrogen

Whilst Hydrogen is a useful alternative it is only considered suitable for 900 single track kilometers of the rail network as identified within Network Rails 'Traction Decarbonisation Strategy'. This is most likely because a major problem with hydrogen is that it is not an unlimited power supply. The end product is electricity that is usually produced by hydrogen fuel cells and as a result is limited in capacity. Although Hydrogen trains are still very much in early development in the UK they're predicated to have a range of about 1000km! The distance between Leeds, Harrogate and York in a straight line is 50km. Resulting in a requirement to refuel trains in less than every ten journeys, refueling is expected to take up to 15 minutes. Unlike batteries that are also limited in range to between 60 - 80km, hydrogen trains can't be refueled on the move! 

Batteries

Whilst batteries could be used to mitigate electrifying sections of line such as through Knaresborough, these are also considered for short sections of line rather than full length journeys such as between Leeds and York via Harrogate. 

At the end of the day services are much more reliable relying on a single power source via overhead wires rather than multiple power sources under each train! 

In July 2020 Network Rail published their interim 'Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy' that seeked to identify the optimum deployment of traction technologies (battery, electrification and hydrogen) on the UK rail network with the aim  of decarbonizing it!  In relattion to the Harrogate line this strategy recommended...

"Electrification from Leeds to Harrogate, battery to York" 

It goes on to say...

"Used by a mixture of stopping and semi-fast services by Northern and LNER this forms a key part of the Leeds suburban network to Horsforth and Harrogate. Mostly services are regional commuter services to York and Leeds. This could act as a potential diversionary route between York and Leeds. Electrification to at least Harrogate is recommended."

Although for it to act as an effective diversionary route the remainder of the line from Knaresborough to York would also require about 11 miles of track to be upgraded from single to double along with signaling upgraded between Harrogate and Poppleton to mitigate impact upon existing local services! 

For an in-depth look at Signaling between Harrogate and York click here