More Trouble With East Coast Main Line Overhead Cables
It doesn’t seem to be long between occurrences of overhead cable problems on the East Coast Main Line. There have been more problems today.
What the problem was has not actually been announced,but it won’t stop the speculation.
On one forum, I’ve seen privatisation, re-nationalisation, installation of a cheap system in the 1980s and both the Conservative and Labour parties all blamed.
As someone, who has taken an interest in the line for many years and have even analysed things like signal failures in the old British Rail days, I do wonder if a lot of the problems are down to the electrification in the 1980s. Wikipedia says this.
Rail services are vulnerable during high winds and there have been several de-wirements over the years due to the unusually wide spacing between the supporting masts of the overhead lines. This wide spacing was a result of extreme pressure from the Department for Transport (as proxy for the taxpayer) to reduce avoidable costs when the line was originally electrified between 1985 and 1990.
With all the electrification scheduled to be done in the next few years, let’s hope we get it right this time.
When you look at British overhead wiring, it always looks flimsier than say that on HS1 or railways on the continent. But this may just be a simplistic perception!
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The Anonymous Widower 
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