Hey, I live near the MML and therefore think the only reason DfT ever announce electrification is so they've got something to cancel in a couple of years when they need to show they're "taking the tough decisions"
It would be an expensive nonsense to suspend existing strategies pending review, least of all because none would exist now without the prior approval of DfT’s micromanagers, of whom hundreds are being parachuted directly into GBR, presumably to give it a solid bean-countery.
A lot has happened since 2020.
These should be complementary, not duplication.
The decisions that involve spending real money are made in spending reviews. There was one in 2025 and the next will be in 2027 or 2028.
To me, there's 3: strategic questions about the E-word
This. Absolutely this.
1. Complete the MML electrification to Sheffield.
And Didcot to Oxford ( Hanborough).
Better still Didcot to Banbury to relieve XC.
Doesn't provide much customer benefit because 810s can do this bit on diesel and the EMR 170 plus XC are all being refurbed for another 10-15 years.
Agree because the 165/6 are on their last legs. Sure they'll be loads of rural route opportunities for any Chiltern cast offs that still have miles in them.
Agree because of 165 replacement, the potential to run 387s up to Oxford and because EWR traction strategy might need a recharging hub at Oxford. Do EWR/Didcot/Chiltern as a single programme.
Totally agree with this point. To me, electric railway strategy isn't going to be driven by performance or reliability. The decade of dithering since GWEP was canned means they've painted themselves into a corner and it'll all be driven by an ever more urgent need to replace 80s/90s 15x/16x DMU with low to zero emissions alternatives.
Doing those bits doesn't really save you much either because that doesn't really convert much to pure electric operation. And if its not going to be pure electric operation then only the heaviest traffic sections of track are going to have a good business case.
My thinking here was suburban services might be suitable for BEMUs if we only had a limited budget.
Tbf I hadn't considered age of current stock (it wasn't a very detailed suggestion). A reason for doing this is that it then makes a connection to HS2 more worthwhile, either via the shortened HS2 east, or just a shorter connection to the line to Derby (which would then also need to be electrified).
Agree with your rationale, although if a link from HS2 to the XC route around Tamworth is built, but then it's probably part of that programme to spread the benefits of HS2, and doesn't arrive until after decisions about Net Zeroifying and replacing the trains that work the top end of the MML have been taken; that decision is needed 2035-2040. I haven't seen senior Govt people talking about Tamworth link so assume that - for now at least - it is behind HS2, NPR/LMR and whatever replaces Phase 2a in the queue, so feels like post 2045 (at the earliest) to me.
This is a Government statement so I’d be amazed if the report writers haven’t been given a heavy steer about their conclusions.
The Department for Transport already know that they won't be able to afford very much. They know the government's current financial position, they know what happened in the 2025 spending review, and they already have some indications of what the next sspening review will be like.
