More tracklaying to take place in Oldham

Posted on Thursday 29 November 2012 by Gareth Prior

From 4th December more tracklaying will take place on the Oldham Town Centre diversion of Manchester Metrolink when Brunswick Street will be closed at its junction with Union Street. This will enable track to be laid across this section of Union Street and will require a number of traffic diversions to be put into place, which will be well signposted in the vicinity. The work is due to be completed by late January 2013. In addition on Sunday 2nd
December a section of Middleton Road will be closed to allow work to take place on laying a new road surface as a result of Metrolink works and as a result there will be further diversions for this day only.

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3 Responses to More tracklaying to take place in Oldham

  1. John Stewart says:
    Friday 30 November 2012 at 19:05

    I had a trip to Oldham last Tuesday. Whilst Metrolink is intent on closing the direct line once the town centre route is available, it did seem to be that retention of the Manchester-bound track would enable engineers’ “trains” to avoid the town centre where they don’t really belong.

    I just had two criticisms of the route and I have no doubt that natives to the area will come forward and explain! One is the substantial drop in the level at South Chadderton which puts the stop at the foot of climbs in each direction; not too good for economy of energy or driving in suspect rail conditions. The other is the extremely low speed on the flyover of the NR lines. Surely a totally new structure like this should have beeen designed with horizontal and vertical alignments that permitted somethinga good deal higher.

  2. freel07 says:
    Friday 30 November 2012 at 20:07

    Can’t comment on the Central Park bridge speeds although looking at the site I think it would have been difficult to get sufficient clearance for future 25kV AC under the bridge without the alignment finally created. The speeds are frustratingly low though and lower than the speeds through similar curvature elsewhere. Maybe there is more to it than we can see.

    The South Chadderton lowering of the embankment was specifically done to allow easy access to the stop. The energy consumption should not be too bad as the regenerative braking will assist in countering that used in climbing away.

  3. Ken Walker says:
    Friday 30 November 2012 at 21:55

    I was also surprised at the 10mph limit at Thorpes Bridge. The clearances either side of the trams do seem to be very tight on the bridge, and on the Newton Heath side incline it is very tight for getting to ground level because of the proximity of the road bridge. I presume this was the best alignment available with the line coming from the former Cheetham Hill loop. But although the speed limit is 10mph it is only for a relatively short distance. As freel07 says the track was lowered at the South Chadderton stop as the former railway line was on an embankment some distance above the surrounding area at this point. Despite the new gradients either side of the stop I have not heard of Metrolink having any of the “leaves on the line” catastrophes that Network Rail used to have on an annual basis with the 50% reduction in service and extended journey times that prevailed during the “leaf-fall” period!

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