As part of the Transpennine Route upgrade Huddersfield Station is to be closed for two 32 day periods in March and April 2024 and April and May 2025.
During that time expect disruption on that route between Manchester and Leeds (for York).
Huddersfield will have a temporary station during the closures at the former Hillhouses Rail Yard off Alder Street- linked into the city with 2 buses an hour (5 in the peak).
Further details closer to the time.
good information. Wondering though, do we have a large Last of the Summer Wine following here who will be making a pilgrimage to Huddersfield in order to see the place where Truly of the Yard meets the Former Mrs Truly's new husband?
Thanks, my favorite train station cats (on Facebook) live there and I have been to see them. I wonder if Felix and Bolt will be at the temporary station. They are the official pest controllers.
A good question about the cats- time will tell.
As I understand it the temporary station will be one very functional platform- like Leeds (Whitehall) of 20 odd years ago when Leeds station was rebuilt- with most trains diverted away. The build of the temporary station has not yet started.
But work on the existing station starts this week.
Here are a few artist's impressions of the rebuilt station- https://thetrupgrade.co.uk/huddersfieldstation/
I remember being asked to work one Christmas on the Leeds station rebuild, with triple pay. but to me Christmas Day was and is sacrosant.
I have just read that sadly Felix one of the Huddersfield station cats has died. There is a Facebook post with all the details. 🐾🐾
This is the relevant Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/FelixandBoltHuddersfieldStationCats/
(this may be a diversion from the original post, but well, what does it matter if it is- it's light relief)
RIP Felix. Kinda sad to only hear of her the other day from this thread and she's passed.
[edit: misgendered Felix. Sorry.]
I am so sad that darling Felix went over the Rainbow Bridge. She was a fluffy tuxedo cat with an attitude. She was a joy to so many around the world, especially making us smile during the pandemic. She was only 11 or 12, much too young for a cat to leave us. As the official senior pest controller for the station she had a Trans Pennine locomotive name after her.
I'm sorry for calling Felix a he. The TV advertising for Felix cat food has conditioned me into thinking it's a tom's name.
I'll share a little experience of cats at work.
I worked at a newspaper, and when the printing went off-site and the press halls demolished, the army of cats which were the mousers in the paper stores were left without a home. There were literally a hundred variations of the same basic black and white cat. The gatehouse and security staff in the remaining office building did what they could to sustain them, but sheesh, there was a lot of them. You could go to the next street and find clones of the black and white cat sitting in people's front yards and looking out their front windows. It seemed like every household in the neighbourhood had a black and white cat.
My late cat Simba lived until 16 years of age. Felix was young.
Felix was given that name because her gender was mistaken when very young.
Given that the Loco hauled trains are being officially withdrawn next Sunday, it will be interesting to see what happens now to Loco #68031.
Maybe it will be leased to Chiltern Railways for their Marylebone to Birmingham services, rather than ending up in the Direct Rail Services freight pool, many of which are based at Sellafield for nuclear flask trains.
Here's a short clip of 68031 'Felix' rather poignantly departing the station.
https://youtu.be/HCMzw65Cmeo?si=38yuryB5HZ-sjUR-
