Midland Mainline Electrification
 

An announcement about the electrification of the Midland Mainline to Sheffield is expected on Monday. Let's hope that it will confirm that electrification will hapen, preferably in my lifetime!

See:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18839483

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Just announced on the BBC Breakfast News that the announcement will be made Monday

Yes & it could have been done EIGHTEEN times over for the cost of the Olympic games.

Should have been done when the line was re-signalled in the 1980's.

Regards, 62440.

Still interested to see them get it through Belper (as was the original plan)

Hearing it fizzing gently in the morning dew as you walk along the alley above the cutting

(Grade 2 listed building as well)

TOTALLY AGREE it was an easy thing then as they had to spend lots on it when they re-signalled

Interesting thought. May have to clear some of the vegitation on Long Row.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Agree with all above and more! Hope they decide to go the whole nine yards and not cut back or take short cuts to save money! Do it all and do it right and maybe we can have a rail network to be proud of again!! The other consideration is the price of tickets! Keep them low to benefit from full capacity and reduce the volume of cars on the road!
We wait with bated breath!!
Cheers
Phil

"We wait with bated breath!!
Cheers
Phil"

Dont hold your breath Phil.

Yeah That's been listed as a railway garden in Railway Eye in two consective years.

As Phil says, they might announce just the nine yards!!!! The Westcountry needs the 'lectric first. We are getting ever more remote from London, soon we will be classed as a separate country if the wires stop at Bristol as currently envisaged.

The whole network should be electrified as in most of Europe, we are in the EU, unfortunately, but we are still living in the past with a lot of things. We should get on and do these electrifications and stop pussy footing about.


Davat

Don't hold your breath too long the TOC's NEED maximum profits for their shareholders now a days the companies MUST make MORE profit each year or they are considered failure even if their profit is in the millions of pounds

But that's like running round the inside of a p**s pot looking for the handle!:eek:

Agreed


What I want to know though in the last news bulletin they said about RE-OPENING old routes


Hmmmm
Just looked at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18851907

they missed a bit between Sheffield and Leeds

I guess we will have to wait for the next edition of "Rail" to get the full break down. I hope there will be contracts for Bombardia out of all this.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

It's a lot of money too spend on saving 10 minutes from Leicester

Not if you're trying to escape it isn't :p

What about Sheffield - Doncaster?

Or Sheffield - Leeds. There are Southampton - Leeds Freightliner trains, they are not going to be given electric haulage when chunks of the route are missed off.

Regards, 62440.

Midland Mainline Electrification.
 

I think its fantastic that the Sheffield London line is going to be electrified buy I don't think the tax payer should foot the bill, after all the government of the day privatised the rail sysyem to save money. Since privatisation the rail companies receive 5x the amount of subsidy that British Rail received (just think what a great system we would have had under B/R with that sort of money) so a good part of that will go towards dividend paid to shareholders. I don't want to be a kill joy and we need a good rail network but this is my honest opinion.

Yes that bit too needs wiring


NOW the 1,000,000 squid question

What are they going to run on it ????

Not a penny West of Bristol!!!!!

is 4.5 billion realy enough money to get all this new work done? or will it end up like the two air craft cairrers nice ship but no planes will we end up with any new trains

Its a start Farren and its a good start long overdue. Once they see the benefits (hopefully) it might just spur on more investment. I know what you mean though and the thought crossed my mind that usually these projects are well under-estimated, lets hope they have got it right for once!
All the best
Phil

They're Politicians Phil they NEVER get anything right

Probably because it isn't feasable. The MML runs though large centres of population and there is a chance that the huge cost of electrification will be paid back though usage.

West of Bristol the population is much more sparse and really you couldn't easily get wires over the Royal Albert Bridge or along the seafront at Saltash.
The former would ruin the bridge and the latter would be just plain dangerous.

To look on the bright side, that section of the GWML will probably get a large amount of cascaded HSTs and Meridian units to provide extra capacity.

Thanks SFE!,
We will just love more hand-me -down HST's! Problem is lack of acceleration along the West country main line with its sharp curves and steep hills. We need the wires to give the performance we need to accelerate services. It currently takes 195 minutes for 185 miles from Newton Abbot to Paddington by the fastest service.
There is enough clearance on the Royal Albert Bridge, Brunel didn't skimp on his clearances. The soggy bit of the GW line is between Dawlish and Teignmouth (Saltash is 40 miles away). Last time I visited Blackpool (I used to live there), it had it's trams on the promenade which still ran during the worst storms without fatalities although sand caused a few derailments. Anyway, diesel "thunderbirds" could escort 'leccy' trains just as they do in engineering gaps now, between Exeter and Newton Abbot.

I don't wish to be objectionable, but to expect a line that has a lower usage (and likely future usage) to get preferential treatment over a much more promising counterpart (and one more likely to recover the costs) just doesn't make sense at all.

There is very little money in the government piggy bank at all so we are very lucky that the railways are getting any investment. I'm sure it will get electrified at somepoint in the future (although I still prefer third rail), but more important lines have to be electrified first.
The MML, which serves much larger centres of population is certainly a priority. Its just a fact that these thigns are down to raw figures, and the MML wins hands down.

Not sure about the bridge but can't see it being too much of a problem.
As for along the sea wall what do they do on the Scottish coast line to Ayr.
That's wired and often gets drowned in the waves.

Full coverage of the whole electrification programme in the latest edition of Rail. Good to see a full over view and how everything fits together, including the prospect of an electric spine from the South Coast to the Midlands.

I would agree that the South West is the loser. However there is also an article on the reopening of the "Withered Arm." For now just reopening to Tavistock from Bere Alston. However the gap to Oakhampton would only be 15.5 miles and most of the track bed is intact. Would this be a better route to electrify in the future? Would solve the problem of the Dawlish Sea Wall.

Finally there is an article on the design challenges of HS2. A look beyond the politics to the challenges of designing a transport facility for the 21st century.

This is an edition of Rail for those who want to be informed and gives a lot of food for thought.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

The Midland Mainline has been crying out for serious investment/electrification for years so its great its in the pipeline.

One route that should be electrified is Stalybridge-Leeds-York as an extension of the Edgehill (Liverpool)-Manchester Victoria-Stalybridge which is already in the pipeline as far as I know.

I know the Settle-Carlisle route is often used for keeping slower moving freight off the WCML but I think the whole character of the line would be ruined if they electrified it.

Robert Riddles
 

I think Robert Riddles was right when he set his face firmly against dieselisation, arguing that the way forward was to electrify. Riddles stuck to his guns over the Standard steam programme, and some fine Standard locos were built. Many Standard locos were needlessly scrapped in favour of expensive diesels. I think steam should have been used on most routes until electrification, as it was at my old shed Enfield.
The 1955 modernisation plan should have been a 25 year plan to electify all major routes.The diesels to cover all the remaining routes as the Steam locomotives became life expired. What a waste to scrap so many modern steam locomotives and also to scrap so many diesel designs that had been introduced in haste.

No plan in those days could last longer than a government, even likely to change with a change of Chancellor.

Got to agree with you there wyvern.

Midland Mainline
 

The Midland mainline electrification is undoubtedly welcome, but, how much use will the wires get?

At the moment at Peaktimes, I think, (someone corect me if i am wrong here) there are about 10 trains an hour south bound out of Sheffield. Of these, two an hour go to London, and can be electrically powered.

The rest, either go to Manchester, Nottingham,or the south west, none of which are on electrified routes.Very little freight will be electrically hauled as the "old road" is not to be electrified.

Wouldn't it be far better in the short term, to electrify from Sheffield down the old GC to the ECML, or across to Doncaster.

Ian

Well for me this is a long overdue start. Naturally not everything can be put into place at one go and a start has to be made somewhere. I would imagine once the initial routes have been built, future developments will take place. Over many years (long after I have left this mortal planet) I expect electrification will be expanded to the outlying areas too. What about freight! Certainly not in the first phases of electrification will this happen but again why not for the future! It has to be the only way to go, unless anyone can come up with an alternative!
Bring it on the sooner the better for all the country but I doubt I will ever see it completed.
All the best
Phil

Ian
you not far wrong per hour there are

there are usually 2 but sometimes 3 both ways Sheffield / London trains

then there are 2 Arriva Cross Country each way an hour (almost 30 minutes apart)

then there is a Northern Rail service Leeds / Nottingham one each way an hour

The last Passenger is the Norwich / Liverpool one service each way

then the Freight is confused as there are slots for RTC trains that rarely get used and there are some for GBRf Coal and Oil trains that don't get used too
but then there are some extra DBS / EWS services though not many usually Lt Engine workings towards Toton

Have got the timetables somewhere but not used them for a while as the weather doesn't help with the mobility scooter