Ordsall Chord legal challenge dismissed

By Richard Clinnick
|
24 March 2016
News

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a legal challenge to the construction of the Ordsall Chord in Manchester.

The challenge was made by Mark Whitby, former president of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

The decision was made on March 23 by Simon LJ (sitting with Lindblom and Hamblen LJJ) in the Court of Appeal in London.

The court dismissed all three appeals made by Whitby against the decision in the Planning Court: two statutory challenges of the Transport and Works Act order and of the Listed Building Consent, and a judicial review of the planning permission. The Court of Appeal will hand down its judgement early in the new term, after Easter.

When built, the Chord will enable two new fast trains per hour between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool, six fast trains per hour between Leeds and Manchester, new direct service through Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport, and faster journey times from Manchester to Hull, Newcastle and the North East Network Rail said.

For more on this, read RAIL 798, published on April 13.

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Author: Richard Clinnick

Head of News (Print and Digital)

[email protected]

Our Head of News, Richard joined RAIL in 2005 from local press, where he had been working since 2002. He covers all aspects of news for the magazine and website, specialising in operations and rolling stock.

Comments (9)

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Comments

Harry Merrick - 24/03/2016 12:54

I am a retired railway traffic controller/manager, and was in Manchester Piccadilly control when the Windsor link was constructed. I was of the opinion at that time that to make it work 2 additional tracks should have been constructed between the east end of Deansgate Station and Piccadilly station Plat 13 an14. I am of the opinion that it is a mistake only doing it between Oxford Road and Piccadilly. The Ordsall Chord will be fieeding into a bottleneck. I am pleased that Mark Whitbys appeal has been dismissed. Reference Liverpool Road stations historical importance. I do not feel it loses any importance not being connected to the National rail network. We have to live in our own time not in the past.
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FrankH - 24/03/2016 17:39

The last paragraph is confusing me. Vic - Liverpool is already possible with electric units, going via the chord will not speed them up. Manchester (Picc+Airport) - Leeds has 5 fast services per hour (Victoria has 1 local) so routing via the chord and Victoria will give 1 extra service per hour. From Leeds these services continue to Hull, Newcastle and Middlesborough now. These services will also be the new direct city centre to airport service. The speed up will I guess come from not having to thread your way across Manchester to get to Huddersfield. How much of a speed up I wonder ?
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Mart H - 25/03/2016 08:53

I guess that an extra train an hour will pay for this umpteen million (to date) expenditure. Considering stations in Manchester already connect with the North east and also with Liverpool. And of course in due course we have electrified lines on state of the art Victorian lines, another few billion to justify one extra train an hour. The block system is already overloaded . How can you squeeze an extra train in a path that is nonexistent? Just building for building sake.
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engpbwake - 25/03/2016 20:55

One train every half hour. Maybe in the future NR will allow more capacity three trains per hour every twenty minutes or even four per hour maximum every 15 minutes when demand rises.
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engpbwake - 25/03/2016 20:56

One train every half hour. Maybe in the future NR will allow more capacity three trains per hour every twenty minutes or even four per hour maximum every 15 minutes when demand rises.
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engpbwake - 25/03/2016 20:56

One train every half hour. Maybe in the future NR will allow more capacity three trains per hour every twenty minutes or even four per hour maximum every 15 minutes when demand rises.
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engpbwake - 25/03/2016 20:56

One train every half hour. Maybe in the future NR will allow more capacity three trains per hour every twenty minutes or even four per hour maximum every 15 minutes when demand rises.
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engpbwake - 25/03/2016 20:57

One train every half hour. Maybe in the future NR will allow more capacity three trains per hour every twenty minutes or even four per hour maximum every 15 minutes when demand rises.
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- FrankH - 25/03/2016 23:39
  
  There are 3 fast services and 2 local per hour now between Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly, the locals go to Oxford road. 2 fast and the locals go via warrington central the other, I guess class 319 emu's run via St Helens and onto the airport. None of these services need the chord.
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  - FrankH - 26/03/2016 14:10
    
    Vic - Liverpool via St helens is possible now, maybe it's shortage of stock that's stopping the introduction, Vic - Liverpool via Warrington Central will be possible with the chord but with a reversal at Oxford Road/Deansgate or Piccadilly.
    
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Andrewjgwilt1989 - 26/03/2016 15:44

Which means that the Ordsall Chord is to go ahead and to be completed in 2017 or 2018 linking the 3 main stations in Manchester and also new services to Leeds, Manchester Airport, Liverpool Lime Street, Bolton, Warrington, Wigan and the Pennine routes.
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- Andrewjgwilt1989 - 26/03/2016 15:48
  
  And even a new service from Manchester Victoria to London Euston with some Virgin Trains West Coast trains to use Manchester Victoria (during peak hours) and Manchester Airport-London Euston via Manchester Victoria semi-fast (peak hour) service.
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  - FrankH - 29/03/2016 10:17
    
    It's possible Virgin may run to Victoria but it'll only be an extension of a Euston - Piccadilly service, a matter of 2 or 3 miles maybe less. The problem would be the turn round time, I doubt Victoria could hold a pendolino for 30 minutes or so without causing problems. The Airport, not 100% but I don't think the stations long enough for pendolinos.
    
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