Electrifying the Midland Mainline

[lpetrich]

Update from Electrification in the North - Network Rail:
Manchester to Liverpool, and Huyton to Wigan: by early 2015
Preston to Blackpool: by Winter 2016/17

Distances:
Manchester - Newton-le-Willows (WCML): 37 km / 23 mi
Liverpool - Newton-le-Willows (WCML): 31 km / 19 mi
Liverpool - Wigan (WCML): 35 km / 22 mi
Manchester - Preston (WCML): 58 km / 36 mi
Lostock (on Manchester - Preston line) - Wigan (WCML): 13 km / 8 mi
Preston - Blackpool: 26 km / 16 mi
Oxenholme - Windemere: 23 km / 14 mi
Manchester - Leeds: 70 km / 43 mi
Leeds - York (ECML): 40 km / 25 mi

[george matthews]

There are two stations and routes to Blackpool. I assume they will electrify the North branch which is equipped to take mainline trains - loco plus carriages. If it is electrified there will no longer be a need to replace the loco at Preston. The South branch takes only short disel trains. It would be useful to electrify it too - no great expense. But probably they won't - this time.

[lpetrich]

Liverpool – Manchester electric services begin | International Railway Journal
The Liverpool (Edge Hill) – Huyton – Newton-le-Willows line. It was originally due last December, but it took longer than expected because of various construction difficulties.

Some electric trains are now running between Liverpool and Manchester Piccadilly station. Manchester Victoria station should be electrified next month, with the completion of electrification from Ordsall Lane Junction.

First of the long-awaited electric trains start running between Liverpool adn Manchester Airport - Manchester Evening News -- shows a train called "Northern Electrics".

Two Merseyside lines prioritised for electrification - Liverpool Echo

Two Merseyside train lines are among those prioritised for electrification by a government task force.

Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington Central and Southport/Kirkby to Salford Crescent are among 12 routes chosen as ‘Tier One’ priorities for the change.

The 12 routes are all based in the north and were chosen based on the economic benefits they would bring to the area, as well as environmental and financial effects, and the change to train capacity.

The now-electrified one is Manchester - Newton-le-Willows - Liverpool, but I'm not sure about the Huyton - Wigan one. Huyton is between NlW and Liverpool. Kirkby is between Wigan and Liverpool on another line, and Southport is NW of Wigan.

BBC News - Twelve rail lines prioritised for electrification

A number of routes across northern England are already being electrified, including Liverpool to Wigan and the Manchester-Bolton-Preston-Blackpool line.

So Huyton - Wigan is not yet done.

That article linked to Prioritising the electrification of the North’s railways | Rail North, and I found a map of its electrification proposals in Electrification Task Force: Final Report, PDF page 11.

[lpetrich]

Electrification priorities in northern England - Railway Gazette

The report focuses on ‘prioritisation not justification’, with the task force saying that while many of the routes might not be national priorities, the need to replace much of the current DMU fleet within 10 years and the political desire for a ‘rebalancing’ of the national economy strengthens the case for wiring in the North.

noting Electrification Task Force Final Report Revealed | Rail North

Here's a list of lines in order of their scores, with Tier 1 having the highest scores:

• Tier 1:
  • Calder Valley: Leeds to Manchester and Preston via Bradford and Brighouse
  • 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 & connections
  • Bolton to Clitheroe
  • Sheffield to Doncaster/Wakefield Westgate (Dearne Valley)
  • Hazel Grove to Buxton
  • Warrington to Chester
• Tier 2:
  • Manchester to Sheffield and southeast Manchester local services
  • York to Scarborough
  • Bishop Auckland to Darlington to Saltburn and Sunderland
  • Barnsley to Huddersfield
  • Sheffield to Lincoln via Retford
  • Chester to Crewe
  • Burnley to Colne & Kirkham to Blackpool South
  • Knottingley to Goole
• Tier 3:
  • Barrow to Carnforth
  • Pontefract to Church Fenton
  • Hull to Scarborough
  • Ormskirk to Preston
  • Carlisle to Newcastle
  • Skipton to Carlisle
  • Barton on Humber
  • Cumbrian Coast
  • Doncaster to Gilberdyke
  • Cleethorpes to Thorne (Doncaster)
  • Middlesbrough to Whitby
  • Skipton to Heysham

Appendix 4 of the report (PDF page 55) contains the details of the scoring.

[lpetrich]

Electrification in the North - Network Rail
Northwest Sparks - Home

Electrification is now done for

• Manchester Victoria
• Liverpool - Huyton - Earlestown, Wigan

Next up is

• Manchester - Preston -- end 2016
• Manchester Victoria - Stalybridge -- end 2016
• Preston - Blackpool -- early 2017
• Wigan - Bolton -- 2017
• Manchester Piccadilly - Stalybridge -- end 2018

[lpetrich]

Midland main line - Network Rail mentions plans to electrify it:

Electrification of the line north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby is scheduled to be completed by 2019, and the line north of Kettering to Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Sheffield by 2023.

[lpetrich]

Network Rail's project pages are now rather heavily revised, and "electrification" is a single, rather general page: Electrification - Network Rail But it has some nice video of driving piles for overhead-cable support poles' foundations. The pile driver is on the end of a mechanical arm that starts on a railcar. That makes access and placement very easy. It links to three pages for specific projects:

• Midland Mainline improvement programme - Network Rail -- about preparations for electrifying the line.
• Gospel Oak to Barking electrification - Network Rail -- a line north of London.
• Great Western Mainline - Network Rail -- preparatory work is still in progress.

But several other upgrade projects involve electrification:

• Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) - Network Rail
• East West Rail - Network Rail -- Oxford - Bicester - Bletchley - Bedford - Cambridge. Thus linking those two college towns.
• Transpennine route upgrade - Network Rail -- Manchester - Leeds - York
• Great North Rail Project - Network Rail -- northern England
• North West electrification - Network Rail -- has the map from earlier versions
• Manchester to Preston improvements - Network Rail
• Preston to Blackpool North - Network Rail
• Ordsall Chord - Network Rail -- linking the two main Manchester stations

[george matthews]

Network Rail's project pages are now rather heavily revised, and "electrification" is a single, rather general page: Electrification - Network Rail But it has some nice video of driving piles for overhead-cable support poles' foundations. The pile driver is on the end of a mechanical arm that starts on a railcar. That makes access and placement very easy. It links to three pages for specific projects:

• Midland Mainline improvement programme - Network Rail -- about preparations for electrifying the line.
• Gospel Oak to Barking electrification - Network Rail -- a line north of London.
• Great Western Mainline - Network Rail -- preparatory work is still in progress.

But several other upgrade projects involve electrification:

• Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) - Network Rail
• East West Rail - Network Rail -- Oxford - Bicester - Bletchley - Bedford - Cambridge. Thus linking those two college towns.
• Transpennine route upgrade - Network Rail -- Manchester - Leeds - York
• Great North Rail Project - Network Rail -- northern England
• North West electrification - Network Rail -- has the map from earlier versions
• Manchester to Preston improvements - Network Rail
• Preston to Blackpool North - Network Rail
• Ordsall Chord - Network Rail -- linking the two main Manchester stations

The Great Western electrification is still proceeding. It's been delayed and the costs are higher than was planned - but that is not unprecedented. The wires are going up on the whole length. So, it's a lot further on than "preparatory work". The Severn Tunnel is probably the most difficult but that too is proceeding. Some parts are being delayed. I think the wiring of the Oxford route has been postponed but will probably be revived as part of the Southampton to the Midlands electric freight route.

[johnthefireman]

Gospel Oak to Barking electrification - Network Rail -- a line north of London.

This line is part of the London Overground and if I recall correctly it is about the only stretch of the main Overground network which is not electrified, so electrifying it will simplify operations immensely and allow London Overground to reduce the number of train types which it operates.

Incidentally there's an interesting unofficial map of the London Overground at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lond ... circle.svg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Romford to Upminster might also be a non-electrified outlier, but its is not connected to the main Overground network without running over Network Rail metals from Romford, which is itself soon to be part of the Crossrail route.

[lpetrich]

Britain cancels major electrification projects

BRITAIN’s Department for Transport (DfT) has announced that it will ditch plans to electrify the Midland Main Line (MML) between Kettering, Nottingham, and Sheffield, the Great Western Main Line (GWML) between Cardiff and Swansea, and the Windermere - Oxenholme branch in the Lake District.

...
The announcement follows problems with electrification on the Great Western Main Line. The cost of the project trebled from £800m in 2014 to £2.8bn while deadlines have been missed. The work between London Paddington and Cardiff is now not expected to be completed until 2018 with the government suspending branch line portions and more difficult elements of the project earlier this year in order to reduce costs.

Disappointing.

[Semaphore Sam]

It seems recent electrification projects have been grossly delayed, and way over budget. I think the project manager is "Network Rail". Before electrification is resumed, Network Rail should be analyzed and re-organized so these issues cease, and budgets and plans can be met much more closely, otherwise electrification might just cease altogether. Sam

[Semaphore Sam]

Interesting article in the Guardian. Grand plans are discussed by politicians, civil servants, and others with railway "interest" or "responsibility", but little expertise. Thus, budgets and plans turn out to be airy-fairy wish-lists, with little basis in reality, regarding costs, planned time-lines, etc, with resulting disastrous outcomes. Back in the day when one Company had responsibility for motive power, track, trains, locos, and everything else, there was expertise at the top levels; if they made mistakes, they paid with their jobs, as the Company's bottom line was affected. Nowadays, bottom line outcomes only might affect election results (thus, for example, secure Tory or Labour seats lose out on needed upgrades, as infrastructure assets are used as election plums in contested areas.) Railway expertise is now secondary to political considerations; the article below states the case much better than I can. These considerations also go into Amtrak funding in the USA...a plum of political power, not rational maintenance of a Rail System. The UK lost something with Rail Nationalization; the last sentence of the article seem to truly tell the tale. Sam
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... oliticians" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[george matthews]

The UK lost something with Rail Nationalization

The loss was the policy of "privatisation" - actually something else as the real damage was fragmentation and the loss of overall planning.

[David Benton]

I think it is the trend towards multiple contracts that contributes to the problem. I suspect in British Rail days, a decision was made at the top to do a project, and it was carried out down through the ranks . Now , it is perhaps suggested by one of the franchises, planned by network rail , quoted or tendered for by contractors, probably contested by other franchises , and so on .
A good parallel is building a house. previously, the owner contracted a builder, who then organised all the subcontractors. The builder ensured things got done in the right order, so the painter wasnt there to paint the roof , before the roofer had put the roof on. Nowadays , the owner often tries to manage the project themselves, or employs a project manager with little practical building experience to organise the subcontractors , who tend to be from further afield than the local builders allies. Delays and costs increase.