Glossop-based company Translink has launched a £159 million bid to re-open the Woodhead Railway, carrying HGVs on trains across the Pennines.
If successful it would see the grand old tunnel brought back into use "within a decade" for the first time since 1981, with hourly passenger services between Sheffield and Manchester, slashing journey times between the two cities to just 45 minutes.
The firm hopes to cut the amount of frieght carried on the A628 Woodhead Pass by more than 90 per cent.
The proposal, submitted this week to the Department of Transport and Network Rail, would see the construction of an Eastern Terminal at Tinsley Marshalling Yard and a Western Terminal at Hattersley, across the Pennines, for Roll On-Roll Off HGV traffic. The line would link the M67 at Manchester with the M1at junction 34A Sheffield.
It is the brainchild of Julian Newton, aged 38, from Glossop, who has worked in the engineering industry for 20 years.