UK's National Infrasture Plan: Some Rail

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has announced National Infrastructure Plan 2011 - HM Treasury
summarized in 500+ Projects Named In New National Infrastructure Plan - Focus On Energy And Transport - Government & Public Sector - United Kingdom
Autumn statement: George Osborne pledges £6bn for infrastructure projects | UK news | The Guardian

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer roughly corresponds to the US Secretary of the Treasury or many countries' Finance Ministers.

This National Infrastrure Plan will include lots of energy, telecom, and road projects, and also rail projects:

• Scotland:
  • Replacement of sleeper railcars
• North West:
  • Electrification of the Transpennine Express -- York - Leeds - Manchester - Liverpool
  • Completion of the Western Gateway Enabling Scheme at Port Salford -- freight rail?
  • Expansion of Mersey Multimodal Gateway -- a freight-rail terminal
  • Restoration of Todmorden Curve - a rail connection
• North East:
  • Electrification of the Transpennine Express
  • Some work on the Tyne and Wear Metro of Newcastle
  • Work on the Tees Multimodal Bio-Freight Terminal -- freight rail (the "bio" is for wheat and the like)
• Yorkshire & the Humber:
  • Two new Leeds RR stations: Kirkstall Forge and Apperley Bridge
  • More Sheffield Supertram vehicles
  • Electrification of the Transpennine Express
  • Improved access to the Sheffield Gateway -- ?
• Wales, West Midland, East Midlands, East of England, South West: (none)
• London:
  • Extension of Northern Line from Kennington to Nine Elms and Battersea
• South East:
  • 130 additional railcars for South London lines
  • New rail link between Oxford and Bedford -- likely including Milton Keynes

About the Oxford - Bedford line, is it one of the lines that the Beeching commission had cut? It seems expensive to build a line from scratch in a built-up area.

There is a rather curious omission:

Secretary will still push for rail revamp | This is South Wales

WELSH Secretary Cheryl Gillan last night said she is continuing to push for electrification of the Great Western Mainline between London and Swansea.

The news comes amid accusations that Wales is being sold short on the UK Government's £30 billion national infrastructure plan.

This route is London - Reading - Swindon - Bristol - Newport - Cardiff - Swansea, and like the Transpennine one, it's been proposed for electrification.

My first thought on hearing of the rail plans is that almost none of them are "shovel ready". Because of the lack of a continuous programme of electrification there is a shortage of engineers experienced in the crafts needed. That may limit the number of schemes that can be done at any one time.

The Great Western electrification is the most advanced as it was announced by the Brown government. The Manchester-Liverpool scheme was announced at the same time. The Blackpool scheme has been around a long time and is probably already largely planned. In Wales the GW scheme only goes to Cardiff, whereas most of the high speed trains go on to Swansea, the logical terminus. If the Swansea line is not electrified will Swansea lose its services? The Wales Government is pressing for the extension. They also want the suburban lines in Cardiff to be electrified.

About the Oxford - Bedford line, is it one of the lines that the Beeching commission had cut? It seems expensive to build a line from scratch in a built-up area.

There was once a train service between Oxford and Cambridge. It was axed in the Beeching time. They are only planning to extend service on the part where the tracks were not lifted, and in fact this is not a new project as it has been going ahead steadily for some time. All the track will have to be renewed on the parts that are Out of Use. It would be useful to rebuild the eastern part, to Cambridge but some of the trackbed has been built on. Diversions would be possible but obviously it would be more expensive.

There are some other interesting projects being talked about. One is to fit all the Cross-Country DMUs with pantographs so they can stop using diesel "under the wires". This might save the former British Rail Engineering works in Derby (now owned by Bombardier). I hate riding in diesel under the wires. There are now suggestions to convert at least some of the third rail network to Overhead. My local line is the first suggested. That would enable Cross country to use the overhead to Basingstoke before switching to diesel to reading, and then electric to Oxford.

Electrification train on order.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/news/s ... train.html

This electrification train is a 23-railcar assembly-line train that will place the foundations, support poles, and overhead wires as it goes. It should be able to do 1.6 km / 1 mi per night on a track, while not interfering with neighboring tracks.

According to the article, it will be used on the Great Western Main Line, so that project will presumably be moving ahead. I've also seen talk about electrifying Cardiff's suburban lines.