Electrification May Be In Trouble Elsewhere, But The Brummies Keep Marching On
Electrification may well be in trouble with the Government delaying Trans Pennine and Midland Main Line electrification and having a strong look at that on the Great Western Main Line.
So I was interested to read this article in Rail Engineer about how a consortium is electrifying the Chase Line between Walsall and Rugeley. This is the first three paragraphs.
With electrification being high on everybody’s consciousness, the schemes to electrify the Great Western and Midland main lines have been getting all the attention. Similarly, the works in the North West and Scotland have been proceeding apace and gaining publicity but the scheme to electrify the railway from Walsall to Rugeley has managed to stay ‘under the radar’.
The scheme is, in fact, a significant step in the direction of developing the public transport system in the West Midlands by improving services on what was a relatively-forgotten part of the network. Due to be completed by December 2017, the project will allow electric trains to run between Birmingham New Street and Rugeley via the Cannock lines, providing passengers with a more reliable, efficient and greener service.
In fact, the scheme will revitalise a line which, not so many years ago, had no regular passenger services at all.
It goes on to describe how the scheme is progressing with a lot of cooperation between the various parties and not much of the usual drama.
So it would seem that not all electrification projects end up in trouble.
I shall go and take a look!
There is one fly in the ointment, though and it is detailed here in Wikipedia. This is relevant paragraph.
Gavin Williamson, Conservative MP for South Staffordshire, has campaigned to limit the speed of trains through Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay when the line is complete. He has written to transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin, requesting confirmation that trains travelling through these areas will not exceed a speed of 45 mph. He has also requested that “environmental mitigation measures” be put in place to reduce the potential impact of the electrification on residents in South Staffordshire. Network Rail had previously said that electric trains are quieter, greener and cleaner, reducing carbon emissions.
So, if in the future, you are fed up with your electric train crawling along, send your complaints to the local MP.
The Welsh Could Be Having A Lot Of Fun Playing Trains In The Cardiff Valleys
After my trip to Ebbw Vale Town yesterday, I started searching the Internet to see what projects might be in the pipeline for rail lines in the Valleys up from Cardiff.
There are a lot of routes spreading out from Cardiff, to places all over South Wales.
Currently, all lines are operated by a mixture of various types of diesel multiple unit, but David Cameron announced that the lines will be electrified in this report on the Government web site, published in November 2014. He said this.
I am delighted to announce today that we are going to press ahead with the electrification of the Valley Lines. After years of neglect, this part of Wales will finally get the infrastructure it needs with faster, more modern, more efficient trains and the impact will be huge.
Spreading the employment opportunities from Cardiff and out to the Valleys and helping hardworking people from all parts of this great nation to get on. This has only been possible because of the UK government and shows our long-term economic plan in action and working for the people of Wales.
It would be assumed that this will go ahead and it will be overhead electrification. The trains could be refurbished Class 315 electric multiple units, if this statement on their future on Wikipedia proves to be true.
On 31 May 2015, the fleet will again be divided with 44 (315818-315861) moving to TfL Rail (MTR Crossrail) with the Shenfield Metro services and the other 17 (315801-315817) to London Overground with the Lea Valley services. As most duties of the 315s will be taken over by new Class 345 Aventra trains once Crossrail is built, it has been suggested that the 315s could be cascaded to the Wales and Borders passenger franchise to be used on Valley Lines services in the Cardiff area following electrification
They may be nearly forty years old, but they aren’t bad trains and perhaps more importantly sixty-one trains will start to come available from London local services as the electrification is completed. In January, In January, I posted an article entitled Transport for London Get The Cleaners, Painters And Engineers Ready For The Shenfield Metro, so I would envisage that they will be cascaded in the best condition London could manage.
These trains are also all four carriages, so there would be more seats on the lines, if the electrics worked a similar timetable to the current diesels.
It is interesting to read this article on Wales On Line entitled Could electrification herald an expansion of the Valleys Lines trains? This is said for a start.
John Rogers, chairman of Railfuture’s South Wales branch, said: “The Welsh Government has a statutory duty to be an ecological government. Electrification brings lower maintenance costs and faster acceleration of trains. There’s historical evidence that electric trains are very popular and lead to increased patronage.
“It doesn’t make sense to electrify to a certain point and then say later, ‘We’re going to add another two or three miles. Can you come back and electrify it?’”
Don’t I just know it that when electric trains prove popular as here in East London, it is a non-stop struggle to increase the capacity to keep up with demand, by continually lengthening the Class 378 Trains on the London Overground.
So for a start, the Cardiff Valley Lines will probably eventually need all of those sixty-one trains, which can work in eight-carriage units on the busier lines if necessary.
They’ll also probably need to increase the car parking and bus frequencies at the outlying stations.
The Class 315s biggest advantage over the current diesels other than ecological and passenger comfort and space ones are that they possess better acceleration and Braking performance, although they have nominally the same top speed.
In the same article on Wales On Line this is said about the proposed extension to Hirwaun.
In February 2011, Network Rail delivered a report which the WG had commissioned into extending the Aberdare service to Hirwaun along a track now used only for occasional freight trains. The report estimated the infrastructure cost at £17m, which would include a loop line at Aberdare.
There is only one track for trains in both directions between Abercynon and Aberdare, with trains using a loop line at Mountain Ash to pass each other.
The loop is positioned to allow trains to leave each station along the line at the same minutes past each half hour.
A diesel train could not run from Mountain Ash to Hirwaun and back in time for the next service to follow 30 minutes later. Therefore an extra train would be needed for the Hirwaun extension, along with a new loop and extra signalling equipment for trains to pass each other at Aberdare.
The only scenario explored in Network Rail’s report was a service operated by today’s Sprinter and Pacer diesel trains, which date from the 1980s. However, modern electric trains would accelerate and brake faster for each station call, and promise to cut many minutes from journey times in the Valleys.
So electrification could deliver other benefits.
The article also suggests that the line I used to Ebbw Vale Town could be simpler if it were electrified.
A study by consultants for Network Rail in 2010 said the planned extension northwards from Ebbw Vale Parkway might involve constructing two tracks at the future Ebbw Vale Town station. This would incur the costs of building two station platforms and installing signalling equipment. Diesel trains would then be able to depart from the new station every 30 minutes, alternately to Cardiff and Newport.
In June 2011 Network Rail delivered a report on the Ebbw Vale line to the WG, again based ,on the service being provided by Sprinters, which said two platforms might be needed at Ebbw Vale Town. It seems likely, however, that only one track and one platform would be needed for electric trains.
I think they’ve started to create some of the new infrastructure, so the doubling of platform and stations might happen anyway.
The article finishes by listing several places, where lines could be extended.
3. Treherbert to Blaenrhondda or Blaencwm
Other sources talk about.
1. Reinstating a service to Abertillery.
2. Llantrissant to Beddau
3. St Fagans to Creigau
4. Routes out of Brigend via Tondu.
There’s certainly a lot of disused railway lines for the Welsh to speculate on. But then there were an awful lot of collieries.
So it looks like the Welsh are going to have fun in the Valleys.
In some ways it reminds me of the buzz that was felt where I grew up in Enfield in North London, when they electrified and extended the Lea Valley Lines in the 1960s.
It does all illustrate how electrification of rail lines isn’t as simple as you think, as it seems to give opportunities for more services and generate addition passenger traffic, that have other consequences.
I think the only thing we can say with any certainty, is that if the electrification goes ahead and the Class 315 trains are cascaded, then transport in and around the Welsh capital will be vastly improved.
Northern Electrics Increase Services
Today the Class 319 trains started running services from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria and Wigan North Western.
I took the pictures when I rode the 07:20 train from Liverpool to Manchester and some later when I returned to Manchester.
When I was travelling to Preston on the Sunday from Liverpool, my Class 156 train on the slow line between Wigan North Western and Preston was passed on the fast line by a Class 319 doing about a hundred. I estimated it was going fast as a couple of minutes later a Class 390 Pendolino roared past.
So it got me thinking, as to why some of the Wigan North Western services from Liverpool don’t go to Preston, as the tracked are electrified.
Then today, a student in Burnley asked me the same question, because as he said, it would make travelling from Burnley and Blackburn to Liverpool a lot easier.
There’s probably a very good reason, why they don’t!
I also asked a driver how they liked the Class 319s. He replied by saying they were waiting for more services to start out of Manchester.
He also said they were a bit bouncy on Chat Moss, where Network Rail had had trouble putiing up the overhead wires.
I have a feeling, that as Northern Rail get a few more Class 319 trains, they may do a bit of reorganisation of services around Preston.
Suppose :-
1. All Northern Rail trains between Liverpool Lime Street and Preston were to be run via Wigan North Western to a frequency of at least twice an hour by Class 319 trains. This might release some Class 156 trains.
2. The Blackburn service via Accrington, Burnley and Todmorden is extended to Preston and possibly to Blackpool North to connect with the Liverpool trains.
3. The Colne to Blackpool South service would also connect.
4. As more lines get electrified, the services would be optimised.
There’s also probably a good reason, why during the closure of the Farmsworth Tunnel, that the service via Todmorden isn’t extended past Blackburn to Preston. It could probably be something as simple as that when they planned the closure, the Todmorden Curve didn’t exist.
An Excursion To Windermere
I caught a train from Preston direct to Windermere to have a look at the town.
I walked from Windermere station to the town, which is a couple of miles downhill and rather badly signposted. Coming back I took a taxi up the hill, as I wanted to catch a train, which was dead on time and dumped me right in it at Oxenholme. But that wasn’t their fault and as expected there was a ready Virgin waiting.
I should note, that I had an excellent gluten-free lunch at Hyltons close to the lake.
The Windermere Branch Line is almost an oddity on the UK rail network, in that it is a very simple out-and-back line with no passing loops from Oxenholme that runs a better than hourly service using modern trains ( Class 185 trains). Signalling at present is non-existent and it relies on just one train being on the line at a time.
So now sixteen million pounds is going to be spent to electrify the line. Unless the line is given a modern signalling system and a better track layout, this won’t in itself give a better train service, than that at present.
Could the one platform Windermere station cope with anything more than a half-hourly four coach train?
So I suspect there is another motive behind electrifying this line.
The line has to be operated by diesels at present and this may give problems about where the trains are stabled at night, as they will need to be refuelled. And where would you park it overnight, as there is no siding at Oxenholm, so you’d have to leave it in a platform at either end of the line.
Currently, I suspect the first train in the morning comes in from Preston and then the last train of the day goes there for fuelling and an overnight clean and service.
My train direct from Preston to Windermere actually split at Preston, with the front half going to Blackpool. When Blackpool is electrified and electric trains serve that route, this splitting will not be possible, as you’d need to send a diesel train to Windermere, unless the branch was electrified.
Does an electric train working the branch give much greater flexibility in planning the schedules and providing a top class frequent service?
I think it probably does.
The only alternative to electrifying the Windermere branch is to use a battery-assisted electric train, like the one I rode in at Manningtree. But although that technology appears to be very successful, no train company would have just one of these, as what happens when it fails?
Removing One Hundred And Seventy Years Of Inadequate Design
The Manchester to Preston railway is san important line in the North-West of England, that was completed in 1841.
To say that is not fit for purpose is a total understatement, as it is not electrified and has a speed limit of just seventy-five miles per hour.
Finally, the line is being electrified and the speed limit will be raised to a hundred. From December 2016, hopefully refurbished Class 319 trains will be speeding from Manchester via Bolton and Preston to Blackpool and possibly Windermere.
The major problem on the line are the twin tunnels at Farnworth. They have a history of make-do-and-mend and are too small to take the overhead wires and Network Rail have come up with a practical solution, that should last several hundred years at least. This Google Earth image shows the ends of the tunnels with respect to the location of Farnworth station and the A666.
Farnworth Station And Tunnels
The smaller of the two tunnels will be refurbished and given a concrete lining, so that during the works, there will always be one track for trains. They will then bore out the larger tunnel, so that it is big enough to take two tracks and the overhead lines.
This will require that between May and October this year, there will be significant disruption to rail passengers. The whole project is described in this article in the Bolton News. It may cause a lot of disruption, but the passengers seem philosophical, as these paragraphs from the article show..
Jeff Davies, part of the newly formed Bolton Rail Users Group, said: “The station closures are the bad news, but there is good news here actually.
“It is the beginning of big investment which could take us out of the present problems and the companies have been at great pains to minimise inconvenience and ensure that Bolton people who work in Manchester will still be able to get there.
Perhaps this is because Network Rail have done their public relations well, if this YouTube video entitled Rebuilding the Farnworth Tunnel is anything to go by.
It all goes to prove that politicians should have sorted out the mess that are the railways of the North many years ago.
Why the North Needs Electrification And Pacer Eradication
Huddersfield is one of these classic Northern towns and cities that do not have a direct train to London.
In the past, when Ipswich have played there, I’ve either taken a fast train to Manchester or Leeds and then taken a train across in a twenty minute ride or so ride.
A typical trip via Leeds takes about ten minutes under three hours, with one via Manchester Piccadilly taking perhaps ten minutes longer.
On my trip north to Huddersfield, because I wanted to do take some photos in Sheffield and because the West Coast Main Line was closed, I decided to go via the old steel city from St. Pancras. With just one change at Sheffield this journey takes ten minutes short of four hours.
So imagine, you were perhaps a businessman needing to go to Huddersfield to check something out or a fan going from London to see your team play Huddersfield Town, would you bother?
I probably wouldn’t except for the fact that I got First Class tickets to Sheffield £36.30. That was Advance tickets with a Senior Railcard and I did buy them several weeks ago, but both journeys were in two hours, so it was probably good value.
I then took a local train from Sheffield to Huddersfield on the Penistone Line, with the journey taking over an hour in a dreadful Class 142 Pacer, as it meandered through the Yorkshire countryside, stopping at stations with interesting names like Wombwell, Denby Dale and Silkstone Common.
At least I wasn’t alone, as I shared the journey with an Ipswich-supporting student and another guy, who like me had been to Loverpool University. So at least it was an entertaining journey.
When you arrive in Huddersfield, you aren’t greeted by some dreadful pile of bricks, which has suffered the excesses and poor imagination of British Rail’s in-house architects, but a regional station that is second to none and is up there with Kings Cross for grandeur and setting.
Huddersfield station deserves a lot better than it is currently getting. The Wikipedia entry, says this about the views of those who knew about architecture, trains and stations.
The station frontage was described by John Betjeman as the most splendid in England and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘one of the best early railway stations in England’.
The only blot on the station, is that in front is a statue of one of Huddersfield’s most famous sons; Harold Wilson. When he was Prime Minsister, he could surely have done more to put an electrified railway across the Pennines from Liverpool and Manchester to Sheffield and Leeds via his home town. Wilson also has the dubious claim to fame in that despite the recommendations of Beeching, he was Prime Minister, when the only electrified line across the Pennines, the Woodhead Line was closed to passengers in 1970.
But things could be getting better.The number of Trans Pennine trains has been increased in the last couple of years and the Huddersfield Line from Manchester to Leeds has been funded for electrification by 2018.
Six fast electric trains every hour between Leeds and Manchester via Huddersfield will be a big improvement in terms of speed and capacity, even if for a few years, they are just refurbished Class 319 trains. For example, journey times between Manchester and Leeds via Huddersfield will be down to forty minutes.
I find it rather ironic, that an electric train based on a design started under Wilson’s Prime Ministership, which was designed for the mountains of the South East, has such an important role in the exorcising of his sins as regards to railway electrification across the Pennines. It probably shows that engineers know a lot more about providing good infrastructure than politicians. But although Class 319 trains may be ugly buggers, underneath and behind that extremely tough steel bodywork, lies all the suspension and power systems to create a comfortable, fast and reliable train, that rides with all the smoothness and finesse of a top of the range car. The one I rode on in Liverpool recently had certainly scrubbed up well.
But this 100 mph electrified railway across the Pennines will be ruined for many, if there is no improvement in feeder services on other routes, which are generally worked by the dreaded Pacers.
To be fair to Northern Rail, yesterday’s example did have new seats and had been smartened up, but that doesn’t alter the fact that they should be sent to the Army for use as targets in gunnery practice.
Take the Penistone Line on which I travelled to Huddersfield. It has four major stations at Sheffield, Meadowhall, Barnsley and Huddersfield, with a host of what look like to be well-maintained stations in smaller and often rural communities. A Pacer trundling along the line once an hour is not exactly a passenger-magnet.
Northern Rail probably don’t have enough trains to provide a more frequent service, but surely in an ideal world, there should be at least two trains an hour along the line. Hopefully, with electrification in the north and transfer of trains from other parts of the country, in a few years time, we’ll see a better service on the line, provided by something like Class 172 trains.
Around the end of this decade, Sheffield will be electrified to London and fast electric trains will do the journey in well under two hours. As Huddersfield will also be electrified, the electrification and modernisation of the Penistone Line and the related Hallam Line between Sheffield and Leeds , could be a logical step to take. In fact the recent report on Electrification in the North has recommended this.
This would open up all possibilities for services, such as providing direct electric services from Leeds, Barnsley and Huddersfield to London via Sheffield and the HS2 interchange at Meadowhall, in addition to very much improved local services.
I look forward to the day when voters in London and the South East start moaning about all their money being spent on electric railways in the North. Hopefully by then, London’s Mayor will have a lot more freedom on how to fund railways in the capital.
Flimsy It’s Not!
Some of the overhead electrification installed in recent decades has been rather less than robust. These pictures show some of the structures on the Great Western Main Line and Crossrail.
If you compare these pictures with those that I took at Eccles in October 2013, they do seem to be of a similar standard.
Hopefully, this current electrification won’t have some of the problems of projects that were done earlier.
The Reading To Basingstoke Line
The Reading to Basingstoke Line, which also leads to the Reading to Taunton Line, goes off in a southerly direction from the Great Western Main Line, to the west of Reading station.
The pictures show the junction. I was surprised to see that electrification has already started on this line. According to this announcement in 2009, electriofication will go as far as Newbury and Basingstoke.
This Google Earth image shows the junction and the Reading to Basomgstoke line as it goes south and passes within a good walking distance of the Madejsk Stadium. There are plans for a new station here called Reading Green Park. Wikipedia says that if approved by the council this year, it could be opened by 2017.
Where Now For Rail In The Border Country?
In this post I use the term Border Country to describe the Scottish Borders and the area of England that adjoins the actual border. The two sides of the border have a long association with fighting on the one hand and co-operation on the other.
But whatever happens on one side has a direct effect on the other. It has been thus, ever since England and Scotland first became nations.
So you understand what area I’m talking about let’s define the Border country as any part of Scotland South of a line drawn south of the Greater Edinburgh and Glasgow areas and in England anything North of say a line from Middlesbrough to Penrith. Apart from the main north-south, East Coast Main Line and West Coast Main Line, there are not many major railways, except for.
!. The Waverley Line, from Edinburgh to Carlisle, the Northern part of which is being rebuilt at the Borders Railway.
2. Carlisle to Newcastle, which has recently been prioritised for electrification and is very much a scenic line.
3. Settle to Carlisle is another down for electrification, which is also an important diversion for freight from the West Coast Main Line.
4. Cumbrian Coast Line that encircles the Lake District is another line on the electrification list.
5. The various lines linking Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Saltburn, Whitby and Darlington are a set of lines that will be electrified to create the Tees Valley Metro.
Most of them are scenic lines, with lots of Listed structures, good walking country and excellent food and drink.
So what factors will effect how the railway network develops in the Border country?
1. The Success Of The Borders Railway
I can’t see the new Borders Railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank, being anything other than a big success. Virtually, every new train or tram line built in the UK and the wider world in the last few years except for the Dutch High Speed Line; HSL-Zuid has been a rip-roaring success.
My only worry about the Borders Railway is that they have decided to open on September 6, which was the day chosen by HSL-Zuid.
This success will lead to demands to extend the railway all the way to Carlisle. Some politicians have stated this is an aim. This extract is from Wikipedia.
In April 2014, Alex Salmond said the Scottish government would consider reopening the entire length of the Waverley Line to Carlisle; he said, “the success of the 30-mile stretch to just south of Galashiels would ‘calibrate’ a feasibility study into rebuilding the remaining 70 miles”
It could also lead to pressure for the reopening of other lines in the Border country.
2.Increase In Anglo-Scottish Traffic
Last week,according to this report in Modern Railways, First Group have applied to run a one-class rail service between London and Edinburgh to compete with the budget airlines.
If more services are sanctioned it will put pressure on both the East and West Coast Main Lines and it is unlikely that HS2 will be built within a few years. More likely this will only happen in a few decades!
And it won’t just be passenger trains, as when the economy gets better on both sides of the border, freight trains will increase too!
The only hope to increase capacity in the short term is to get passenger services on the two current main lines running at 140 mph, selectively add another track and hope by the use of ERTMS you can create a enough paths for the extra trains.
Somewhere there is an ambition to run trains between the English and Scottish capitals in four hours. When this happens, I suspect it will further increase the number of Anglo-Scottish passengers.
At a pinch, I suppose you could move freight trains to an uprated and fully-rebuilt Waverley Line, which could reach the English Midlands, via the Settle and Carlisle Line, to further eke out capacity, but it just goes to show how much HS2 will be needed all the way to Scotland.
3. Electrification In The North Of England
If this goes as far as the report of the North of England Electrification Task Force suggest, this could increase the number of lines in the Border country that get electrified. According to the Borders Railway web site, the new railway is being created so that electrification could be added reasonably easily.
You would hope that as they do more electrification, the engineers will get better at putting up the wires and keeping costs down. They may also come up with less obtrusive ways of electrification.
4. Improvements In Central Scotland
It seems that the railways between Edinburgh and Glasgow are very much like the railways between Liverpool and Manchester. There are several routes and they should have been electrified forty years ago.
In Glasgow too, you have the problem that trains can’t run between the West Coast Main Line and Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness. Passengers have to take a bus, taxi or walk across the city centre.
Hopefully, with the completion of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme and the final implementation of Glasgow Crossrail, things will get better in a few years.
One outcome will be that more tourists will treat Glasgow and Edinburgh as one destination and will perhaps stay longer and explore the area more. So properly marketed they will take trips down into the Border country.
5. Track And Station Innovation
When I traced the Borders Railway on Friday and then when I looked up some of the visualisations of the track and stations, I was surprised how different some are to your typical station. Most on the Borders Railway are simple bi-directional stations on a single line, just like James Cook station in Middlesbrough.
As Network Rail and their appointed architects and engineers improve the design, this will mean that more lines can be reopened for an affordable cost.
I suspect too, that the designs will be used to create new stations in new developments all over the UK.
One good thing about the Borders Railway, is that there are no level crossings, with all of their adverse safety implications.
6. Train Innovation
Over the last few weeks, I’ve ridden battery-powered trains in Essex and tram-trains in Germany and France. So could innovation in train design mean that designers come up with a train that offers serious advantages over today’s trains for running on both heavy rail lines and perhaps on-street? And could it use a battery so that it doesn’t need to have fully-electrified lines?
I’m not sure yet, but something less capital intensive than today’s trains will be developed for use off the main electrified network.
Perhaps the ultimate train would be a variant of a Class 379 train or Class 399 tram/train, that could run on any voltage, but had a battery capability giving a range of perhaps sixty miles. Such a train could probably be used on the line between Carlisle and Newcastle with ease, as because both ends are electrified, it could charge the batteries fully at both ends.
The battery option would give all the speed and comfort of an electric train on rural lines, but without the cost and hassle of putting up electric wires.
7. ERTMS
A lot of the lines in the Border country are fairly simple, so ERTMS may make life even simpler as there will be no signals at the track-side to maintain in remote locations. In fact the Cambrian Line in Wales, which is very much a remote line has been working under ERTMS since 2010. This article from ERTMSOnline says that after a couple of teething problems things are going well now.
I don’t know whether the Borders Railway will run under ERTMS, but from what I’ve read, it would be more efficient if it did.
Certainly if you were opening a new line in a few years, ERTMS would be used and there would be no line-side signals.
8. Leisure Opportunities
If the Border country has lots of decent railway lines connecting small towns to major stations on main lines, it can’t help but encourage more people to explore the area.
The Borders Railway may well be opened with a steam train, although the design of Tweedbank station has not been designed with a run-around loop, so the engine can change ends.
Abellio ScotRail, who are the new franchise operator for Scotland are reported under their Wikipedia entry like this.
The franchise agreement requires the introduction of ‘Great Scottish Scenic Railway’ trains on the West Highland, Far North, Kyle, Borders Railway and Glasgow South Western lines. Steam special services will also be promoted by Scotrail.
As Abellio ScotRail are also committed to running shorter InterCity 125s between the major cities in Scotland, could we see a regular service to the Borders using one of these iconic trains?
When the Borders Railway is extended to Carlisle, as it surely will be, I suspect that these trains would take the Settle and Carlisle route all the way to Leeds.
If the trains were given a Chiltern-style spacious refurbishment, the finest and fastest diesel train, the world has ever seen, will have found a mission for a long and happy retirement.
Conclusion
All of these technical developments will mean that in a decade or so, the Border country will be criss-crossed by railways, where modern electric trains and a few heritage trains will speed passengers comfortably about their business.
It can’t but help to secure a prosperous future for the area.
Electrification In The North And East Anglia
There has been two major announcements about electrification of railways in recent weeks.
In this article on the BBC, they lay out the twelve lines in the north that have been prioritised for electrification in the report of the North of England Electrification Task Force. They are in all parts of the North.
- Calder Valley
- Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington Central
- Southport/Kirkby to Salford Crescent
- Chester to Stockport
- Northallerton to Middlesbrough
- Leeds to York via Harrogate
- Selby to Hull
- Sheffield Meadowhall to Leeds via Barnsley/Castleford
- Bolton to Clitheroe
- Sheffield to Doncaster/Wakefield Westgate
- Hazel Grove to Buxton
- Warrington to Chester
If the project goes ahead soon after completion of the current electrification project in the North West, it will take another large step towards creating a modern electrified railway in the north.
Joining the electrification together on a map, shows that after it is all completed there will effectively be two major east-west routes that are fully electrified.
The Huddersfield Line will allow electric trains to run from Liverpool to Hull, York and Newcastle, via Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and Doncaster, with a choice of two routes between Liverpool and Manchester. After all the work is completed there will be six fast trains an hour between Leeds and Manchester.
I was surprised that one of my favourite rail lines, the Calder Valley Line was also prioritised for electrification along with all its branches. But according to their correct methodology the line scored highest of all lines considered in the report. It is very much a scenic line and I recently took it from Leeds to Manchester, as it wound its way over the Pennines and through towns, like Bradford, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Rochdale. Electrification will speed the journey and add capacity to the route. It will be a good home for more of those refurbished Class 319 trains and will link Preston, Blackpool and Manchester in the east with Leeds in the east. But perhaps more importantly, it will bring faster electric trains to all those towns dotted across the Pennines. Only knowing the area from occasional football matches in places like Burnley, Blackburn and Barnsley, I would not try to quantify the economic benefits. But I have a feeling that those who made the predictions would have erred on the low side!
The other lines prioritised for electrification fall into two distinct groups.
The Western or Lancashire/Cheshire group is a set of extensions to the current North West Electrification radiating out of the Northern Hub and includes Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington Central, Southport/Kirkby to Salford Crescent, Chester to Stockport, Bolton to Clitheroe, Hazel Grove to Buxton and Warrington to Chester. It virtually leaves only a few smaller lines to be electrified in the area.
The Eastern group is generally a set of extensions off the East Coast Main Line or the soon-to-be electrified Midland Main Line and includes Northallerton to Middlesbrough, Leeds to York via Harrogate, Selby to Hull, Sheffield Meadowhall to Leeds via Barnsley/Castleford and Sheffield to Doncaster/Wakefield Westgate. As with the Western group, it leaves very few important lines that are not electrified.
Looking at all this electrification, I think it has all been very well-thought through and the Task Force has chosen well. If you look at the Tier Two and Three lines that will follow these twelve Tier One schemes, it certainly seems to have been touched by the hand of a good project manager, who has arranged the schemes so that the teams can efficiently do one after another.
There was also a report in Modern Railways entitled Felixstowe Wires Study, which contained the following.
Network Rail is to conduct a study into the possibility of wiring the busy cross-country freight route from the port to Birmingham, with the results feeding into its Initial Industry Plan for Control Period 6 (2019 to 2024), due to be announced in September 2016.
The Modern Railways report also talks about looking into the eastern end of the East West Rail Link, a new station at Addenbrookes and the possible reopening of the March to Wisbech branch.
Both the North of England and the East Anglian reports seem to be the sort of comprehensive and intelligently-written reports, that have been severely lacking in the last few decades from UK rail companies. The work being proposed seems to be lacking in any political vanity, but geared very much to commuting, leisure, freight and bringing investment and infrastructure to places that need it.
I can’t help feeling though that if you look at all of the electrification schemes proposed for the North, there is a very strong focus on leisure.
For instance, increased frequency, capacity and comfort on the Calder Valley Line, will help those commuting into Leeds and Manchester, but the line will also carry a large amount of all sorts of leisure traffic like walkers, shoppers and families just taking a scenic train ride. As a lady said to me, when I travelled from Leeds to Manchester last week, the train is so much easier than the M62.
This leisure focus continued with adding the Barrow to Carnforth, Settle to Carlisle, the Carlisle to Newcastle, York to Scarborough, Hull to Scarborough, Cumbrian Coast Line and a few others into the program. I never thought I’d ever see some of these lines ever mentioned with the e-word.
Quite frankly all of this electrification should have been planned and implemented years ago, so it’s very much a case of better late than never. The big irony, is that some of the British Rail built, nearly thirty-years-old, Class 319 trains, will be returning to the county of their creation to move tourists and business passengers all over Yorkshire and the rest of the North.
It looks to me, that if you’re interested in a job with a future, then they’ll be plenty of work in railway electrification for quite a few years.
Or you could open a quality B & B near to a picturesque station in the North!
The Anonymous Widower 