Last month I argued that our railways should reduce their dependency on oil with an incremental programme of main line electrification – using energy powered from a wide variety of sources, many of them carbon neutral and several also ‘renewable’.
As we move into the new year, it now looks as if electrification is going to become something of a cause célèbre.
Everyone I met in the final month of 2007 seemed to be agreed that the rail industry is heading for a collision with the Government’s hitherto-steadfast policy against further electrification – the only expansion of which, so far, will be when Crossrail goes ahead. That would extend electrification over the Great Western main line from Hayes to Maidenhead – just 13 miles!
Yet clearly there are strong reasons, both economic and environmental, to extend electrification, as Network Rail’s chief executive Iain Coucher and the chairman of the Association of Train Operating Companies, Adrian Shooter, set out in a joint letter to the Department for Transport last November.
Indeed, Mr Shooter reiterates the case for further electrification in an article in [January's] Railnews. He says we should fill in some of the gaps in the electrified network and then extend electric power to new routes as well.
The most obvious ‘gap’ to start with is the Midland main line between Bedford, Sheffield and Leeds. Whenever this route is examined – whether in 1980 by British Rail and the Ministry of Transport or last year by W S Atkins – it shows a strong case. As the DfT’s head of rail systems, Derek Chapman, said recently, further electrification needs to be linked to future rolling stock and signalling renewals. So the MML fits the bill perfectly.
The West Hampstead and Leicester signalling centres were designed by BR for electrification, and signalling throughout much of the East Midlands will soon be replaced with the latest equipment by Network Rail.
As for rolling stock, the HSTs inherited by East Midlands Trains will be replaced (eventually) under the DfT’s Intercity Express Programme, which anticipates both electric and diesel, and perhaps hybrid, versions of the new trains.
With commitment to an electrification programme, the electric version of the new Intercity Express should take priority. Indeed, with today’s concerns about carbon emissions and availability of oil – not to mention its price – one wonders why there are serious plans to develop a diesel-only version at all.
A tilting variant should be developed, too. The MML is very sinuous and trains similar to the West Coast Pendolinos would result in significant journey time reductions. After all, the prototype Advanced Passenger Train ran from London to Leicester in less than an hour more than 30 years ago!
Electrification of the MML has been anticipated since 1980, when it came second to the East Coast main line – completed in 1991 – in a review carried out jointly by BR and the Government.
I well recall that when Dronfield station was re-opened in 1980 by BR chairman Sir Peter Parker, he made great play of the fact that the footbridge had been built high enough for safe clearance with electric wires. But, 28 years later, Dronfield (and the MML) is still awaiting the catenary to be installed.
Electrification to Leeds would immediately open the possibility of further in-fill schemes, such as Sheffield-Doncaster and Leeds-York (both of which would increase resilience by providing electrified diversionary routes).
MML electrification might also justify wiring the CrossCountry route from Derby to Birmingham (and to Lichfield, via Wychnor), to provide another diversionary route for electric trains – and from Nottingham to Grantham (yet more resilience with another diversionary between Grantham and Doncaster).
In terms of future rolling stock and signalling renewals, the Great Western main line, too, must rate highly for electrification. With the £450 million Reading project now going ahead, the illogical termination of Crossrail at Maidenhead can be replaced by extending electrification another 12 miles to Reading, where a traincare facility could be provided.
Once the wires have reached Reading, it would be very straightforward to extend them to Bristol and, if the Badminton route was to be included, it would be sensible to consider taking the catenary through the Severn Tunnel to South Wales. As well as coinciding with replacement of the existing HSTs, all the signalling systems (Reading, Swindon, Oxford, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff) date from the 1960s and ‘70s and need replacing.
As for justifying the investment in new electrification, recent reports suggest the Government is introducing a new policy that will significantly favour rail schemes.
Ministers, it was said, have been instructed to factor into their calculations when making policy and investment decisions covering transport – along with construction, housing, planning and energy – a notional ‘carbon price’ of £25.50 a carbon tonne now, rising to £59.60 by 2050.
Phil Woolas, MP, the climate change minister, said: “This will have huge implications for [the] Government. If, for instance, a new power station is due to cost £1 billion but will add £200 million worth of carbon emissions, we will decide that the cost of the power station is £1.2 billion, even though its cash price is £1 billion.
“We are creating a new currency.”
Electrification reduces carbon emissions by 20-30 per cent, so the ‘new currency’ should also greatly reduce the cost of extending the catenary over significant sections of the rail network.