Sheffield to Manchester tripper - anyone else annoyed?

[rubydazzler 11]

However, the OP, devlin, lives in Rotherham, and I suspect that this route wouldn't be much use for him.

 

Don't want to be accused of being a bitter, twisted, manbasher again, but why are people assuming that the OP is a man? I seem to think devlin earlier mentioned a hubby possibly buying a bike as a birthday present?

 

I wonder if having a special train that carries your car over to stockport or somewhere on the train line would be feasible? You could just drive onto some sort of carrier and then off at the other end ... sit and read the paper and relax. Bit like being on a ferry?

 

I think the expense would be too great to just ram another tunnel through for cars?

[Le Phantom 10]

Yes, Le Phantom, I agree, this is an excellent route if you know the backroads after Rushup Edge and the Chapel-en-le-Frith/New Mills by-pass, but sshh.... we don't want everyone to know how to beat the slow moving traffic surely!

 

However, the OP, devlin, lives in Rotherham, and I suspect that this route wouldn't be much use for him.

True, which is why I failed to mention how to navigate those roads and a Sat Nav won't help either

 

I think the OP is a she btw but even from Rotherham I'd divert via the roads between Sheffield and Chesterfield and pick this route up from Owler Bar.

 

Actually with a whole generation addicted to sat nav's these devious routes will be even less clogged up for the rest of us

[Le Phantom 10]

Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing with the Woodhead rail route (for lorries, rather than cars)? Does anybody know what the latest is on that?

 

Though I don't suppose that would be happening in, say, the next ten years or so.

They were, as part of a whole regeneration of the original Great Central idea of a freight route connecting up Manchester/Sheffield etc by rail to the continent.

 

However, since the chairman and driving force behind it tragically died it's seemingly gone very quiet.

 

Link here http://www.central-railway.co.uk/index.htm

[rubydazzler 11]

Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing with the Woodhead rail route (for lorries, rather than cars)? Does anybody know what the latest is on that? Though I don't suppose that would be happening in, say, the next ten years or so.

 

Also thinking about it, I can imagine that people still wouldn't use it, as they might have to set off at a time that didn't suit them ... obviously you can't have them picking up every minute or so ... unless you had a sort of Paternoster lift effect, that was set on a continuous loop between here and Manchester and you could just swoop on as it came past

[md25 10]

Why not have a motorway through the Peak Park ?

If you go up the M74 into Scotland you get to see some fantastic scenery and no it doesn't spoil it, it's just progress.............

The southern uplands are not a morass of contours like the peaks, though, so it's easy to lay a motorway through them. A better comparision would be the A82 through the Great Glen. It's single-carriageway, lethally dangerous and unwidenable without forever ruining the landscape - just like the A57.

[GazB 10]

This is worth a read.....

[bandit 10]

i worked in Manchester for 13 months a year ago...

 

i used to be able to get from Sheffield, to the M60 on the edge of Manchester in less than an hour going over the Snake Pass (A57)... from there its about 20 minutes up the M60 to Bury, where you could start your day...

 

i guess it depends on how your day is planned and what time you are travelling...

 

for me it was from my flat in the city centre, to my office near manchester airport,

 

i could leave at 8:05 and be at the office by 9:00...

 

it was always worse coming back in the evening and would usually take about an hour and a half...

[**Topgun** 10]

A better comparision would be the A82 through the Great Glen. .

I wasn,t after a comparison, just saying that even if you laid a motorway it wouldn't spoil the area. After all a road is a road, whether it is two lanes or ten lanes............

[hector_ilium 10]

I used to do the trip by train thinking it would be easier but altho the early morning train (about 7ish if I remember) was always on time, the journey back was so hit and miss it was surreal. I don't know what they do with their trains on that side of the pennines but spending most of my evenings in Stockport station made me so depressed that I eventually had to call it a day.

 

However, many 10 hour trips to Southampton courtesy of those jokers at Virgin soon had be hankering for my Stockport days again!

[naps 10]

 

Seriously I can get to Norwich or newcastle quicker than I can get to manchester..

 

Then you are either inept, or a liar.

It's that simple.

[Cyclone 10]

Commuting to birmingham is quicker than commuting to manchester, i've done both on a regular basis. And birmingham is almost twice as far as manchester.

[daverity 10]

Thanks for that - but that guy died back in December 2004. I'm sure I heard something new about this project earlier this year?

 

I was working in Leeds a few months back and was watching the local news on telly there one night and half remember seeing something about this too. If I remember correctly they were going to relay a long disused track through the Pennines and use it to get HGV's and other goods vehicles off the trans-Pennine roads. Seemed like a good idea to me:)