News Desk

New Rail Electrification Announced

24th July 2009

On 23rd July the government announced that it was proposing two significant new electrification schemes for Britain’s railways, the first large schemes since rail privatization. The announcement was accompanied by a report, suggesting the decision had been made internally a while previously.

The two schemes are for the Great Western main line and the Liverpool–Manchester route. The Great Western scheme embraces the lines to Newbury, Oxford (via Didcot), Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Newport and Swansea. The scheme technically goes east only as far as Maidenhead as the London-Maidenhead section is being electrified anyway as part of the Crossrail project with which it will be coordinated. This will almost certainly mean that Crossrail trains will be extended as far as Reading. The cost of this scheme is estimated by Network Rail as about £1bn. The overall scheme will not, however, be delivered particularly quickly with some early works not beginning until 2012 and most construction beginning two years later. Electric services will start in 2016 on Bristol route and the following year to Swansea. It may be possible to get as far west as Reading sooner, allowing electrification of many local services from Paddington.

The Liverpool–Manchester route is that of the pioneering Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened in 1830, and is one of three routes between those towns serving Manchester Victoria, Huyton and Newton-le-Willows. Line speeds will be upgraded from 75 to 90 mph. The route will also allow electric Manchester-Scotland services to run via a junction with the West Coast main line near Earlestown. The cost of this scheme is estimated by Network Rail as about £100m.

The £1.1bn cost of the two schemes will be met by Network Rail and supported by government. It emerges that the interest charges on borrowing of £20m a year will be met by government until 2014. This is the end of control period 4 and represents a commitment of £100m from the public purse; after this the costs will become part of the general Network Rail debt funded through the regulatory regime. Over the medium term (thought to be 40 years), the schemes will pay for themselves through lower train leasing and maintenance costs and reduced operating costs. Network Rail believes it has identified a relatively low-cost electrification system using modular components as far as possible and with installation times kept within 8-hour windows at night. Electric services are due to begin within four years.

The benefits are stated to be that electric trains are 35 per cent cheaper to operate than diesels, allowing for lower maintenance and energy costs. They are also cheaper to buy (and therefore to lease). They also contribute to the government’s carbon reduction strategy, reducing (it says) carbon output by 20-35 per cent per passenger-mile. Electric railways are generally more reliable, too, even allowing for the extra infrastructure, and they have higher acceleration capability, helping to reduce journey times.

Significantly these schemes mean a change to the much trumpeted strategy to replace the aging high speed train fleet. The replacement trains, referred to as the Super Express, have been procured by the Department for Transport as the fragmented industry has difficulty in making these high risk long term decisions because of its structure. After a lengthy tendering process the winning bid went to Agility Trains, a special purpose consortium, for trains that will be constructed by Hitachi, a 60 per cent shareholder. The plan has proved controversial in the eyes of train operators and industry commentators. The rather unusual approach was adopted of buying three different versions of the train, which altogether might number 1400 vehicles in 10-car sets (some divisible into two 5-car sets). This option, considered by the industry as a rather expensive approach, would cost up to £7.5bn. There was to be an all-electric version, a diesel version and a bi-mode version that would use the overhead line when available and the diesel engine when operating on unelectrified lines. A novel feature was for the diesel power unit to ‘top up’ the power required to accelerate the train; there is no other railway in the world that has adopted this approach, but the DfT says it would allow limited running 'off the wires'.

Electrification of the Great Western main line means it will no longer be necessary to have any of the diesel-only trains, but the novel bi-mode sets are still in the offing. The Great Western and Manchester local services may be operated by cascaded stock from Thameslink and lines affected by Crossrail, though the notice particularly points out that any such stock would be completely refurbished.

The government announced the electrification scheme on the occasion of a cabinet meeting in Cardiff, significant as this is the first electrification scheme to touch Wales (with the Welsh element not regarded originally as very good value for money). Industry observers have identified that the Midland main line actually had a better business case but the Great Western main line passed through more marginal constituencies. Whatever the motives, the industry is grateful for the significant start these schemes make towards a further programme of electrification; the more so as electrification was pretty much off the agenda as recently as two years ago.

The electrification scheme will allow Network Rail to adopt some new engineering techniques. Up to 113 bridges and tunnels may require attention (site surveys may reduce this number) and Network Rail may be able to use its new modular bridge design which is intended to be installed during a single 8-hour possession. Part of the programme will involve the construction and delivery of 'factory' trains (three piling and one wiring train) which will allow electrification to proceed on a 'high output' basis, significantly reducing delivery costs.

For more on Network Rail's electrification proposals, see our report on the electrification element of the network route utilization strategy.

Note about the marginal constituencies. It is all a bit subjective. We have identified nine marginals on the GW scheme (Oxford East, Swansea West, Cardiff North, South Swindon, Wansdyke [debatable], Vale of Glamorgan, North Swindon, Reading West and Newport West). There are perhaps eight on the Midland schemes (Leicester South, Corby, Loughborough, Broxtowe [very debatable], Bedford [debatable], South Derbyshire, Derby North and North West Leicestershire). It is anyone's call how promises of vaguely nearby electrification translate into thoughts about likely votes generated, if the matter even passed the government's thoughts. The fact four of these marginals are in Wales is likely to have been a factor.