ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAMMES BACK ON TRACK
Published at 12:42 on Wednesday 30th September 2015
Tags: DfT, Electrification, Network Rail
EMT Class 43 No. 43055 leads the 09:15 St Pancras International to Nottingham away from Wellingborough on 19th September 2015. With the restarting of the electrification programme, this part of the Midland Main Line should be 'wired' by 2019. Ken Brunt
Work to electrify TransPennine and Midland Mainline railways will resume under plans announced on 30th September, as part of Sir Peter Hendy’s work to reset Network Rail’s upgrade programme.
Sir Peter Hendy has outlined to the Secretary of State for Transport how work could continue. The Secretary of State has replied to the Chair of Network Rail asking Network Rail to un-pause this work.
Network Rail will work with the Department for Transport (DFT) and Rail North to develop a new plan for electrification of the TransPennine line between Stalybridge and Leeds and on to York and Selby to focus on delivering key passenger benefits as quickly as possible. This is an improvement on the previous plan which only changed the power supply of the trains.
The new plan will deliver faster journey times and significantly more capacity between Manchester, Leeds and York. The upgrade is expected to provide capacity for six fast or semi-fast trains per hour, take up to 15 minutes off today’s journey time between Manchester and York and be complete by 2022. When the work is finished, the whole route from Liverpool to Newcastle (via Manchester, Leeds and York) will be fully electrified and journey times will be significantly reduced compared to today’s railway.
Network Rail will also recommence work to electrify Midland Mainline, the vital long-distance corridor which serves the UK’s industrial heartland. Sir Peter Hendy is proposing that line speed and capacity improvement works already in hand are added to, with electrification of the line north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby by 2019 and the line North of Kettering to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield by 2023.
