The Anonymous Widower

Comparing West Anglia Four-Tracking And Sheffield Tram-Train Projects

This article on Rail Technology Magazine is entitled Delayed Sheffield tram-train completion date finally set.

This project was announced in 2015 and the Class 399 tram-trains were delivered in 2016. So you’d think it would be nearing completion, with the tram-trains tested and the track complete. But no! The link will open in Summer 2018.

But the West Anglia Four-Tracking has not even been announced and the Orange Army is already hard at work to squeeze in the extra tracks along the West Anglia Main Line.

Both construction projects have one important thing in common. They need new track to be laid on land already owned by Network Rail or supporting local authorities, with modifications to the overhead electrification and signalling.

So why has one started before it has been announced and the other has taken for ever to get out of the starting blocks?

Wrst Anglia Four-Tracking has been talked about seriously for over ten years, so Network Rail have had a long time to finalise their design.

So do Network Rail need something like a dozen years to go from the start of design to full on construction?

Perhaps they were caught on the hop with the Gospel Oak to Barking Electrification and hadn’t got a design together?

If a project takes a long time to go from initial design to construction, all of the good engineers, managers and workers move on to something they might see completed in their lifetime. So the project has to be restarted time and time again with new people.

Crossrail was different in that when the politicians said build it, the team was created, who will see it through from design to the trains running throyugh the tunnels.

Let’s hope HS2 gets the same treatment as Crossrail, so that in 2026 we can all experience London to Birmingham in the blink of an eye.

February 23, 2017 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 399 Tram-Train, Crossrail, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, High Speed Two, Network Rail, Sheffield Supertram, West Anglia Route Improvement