Edinburgh Suburban Line - Electrification

[TrainViation]

I've always wondered why the Edinburgh Suburban line was never electrified.
Is there any key reasons why? Since it's used by lots of freight each day which is forced to resort to diesel traction.
And will it be worth electrifying in the future?

 

[The exile]

I've always wondered why the Edinburgh Suburban line was never electrified.
Is there any key reasons why? Since it's used by lots of freight each day which is forced to resort to diesel traction.
And will it be worth electrifying in the future?

With the arrival of Classes 93 and 99 and the high costs of electrifying urban railways (lots of bridges etc), unlikely.
"Lots of freights"? I suspect you'd need to be talking 30 - 40 in each direction per day, all of which were only using diesel traction because of that section, before it would even be considered.

 

[TrainViation]

My thought process is that it would allow electric only trains to be able to divert around Waverley or go round the back if needed to.
Or the odd case where the Edinburgh Sub was the only unelectrified line on a whole route (say Carlisle to Oxwellmains), forcing the loco to be diesel.

And it could incentivise freight operators to use electric locos if they had no other option, or if it made a certain working day more efficient to use a diesel elsewhere.
Though there would have to be a lot of joined up thinking between Network Rail and the freight operators and it would have to be worth it in the end.
Then again, it would be easier just to operate bi-mode locos since they're now a thing with the 93/99s coming into service. I'm sure it won't be long before Colas makes a move on them.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

As has been said above - and I am a massive electrification fan- class 99s are a game changer.

 

[takno]

It's been in various Scottish government plans, but it's difficult to see it being a priority for anybody. It's a line with a lot of low bridges and bends, so it's not an "easy job" you could do to keep teams moving, and it's unclear that any of the trains which use it would be switched to electric as a result of doing it, even before the 93/99s.

Might happen one day, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Bill57p9]

The Edinburgh sub isn’t particularly busy and not much freight is electric. If any FOC particularly wanted to run an electric service via Edinburgh then Waverley does remain an option: there are not many spare paths but there are some only occasionally used Q paths such as the Royal Scotsman.

The only regular beneficiary I can really think of would be the Edinburgh portion of the Caledonian Sleeper which could avoid the need to have the loco run round - notably during the morning rush.

IMHO there are plenty of higher priorities for electrification in Scotland. Fife followed by Central Belt to Aberdeen in the East and Kilmarnock in the west spring to mind. Or Cowlairs to Anniesland if infill is the name of the game.