IF electrification extended to Middlesbrough...?

[LNW-GW Joint]

I was surprised to see in a recent Rail article about NW electrification, that the extent of TP wiring in West Yorkshire had not yet been agreed.
NR appears to be pushing for a diversionary route via Wakefield Kirkgate to be added to the direct route.
Until they have costed and planned the route to York/Selby I can't see them giving any priority to Middlesbrough.
I think we are going to have a battle over electric freight, as the freight operators show no signs of wanting to use the newly wired routes in the CP5 plan.
You don't spend money on electrification without a business plan, and 1tph for passengers and no buy-in for freight does not stack up.
But then, something might drop out of the TP/NT franchise renewal machinations.

 

[Waverley125]

The line via Wakefield Kirkgate did ought to be electrified. Along with Kirkgate-Sheffield via Barnsley and Moorthorpe-Sheffield.

 

[tbtc]

You don't spend money on electrification without a business plan, and 1tph for passengers and no buy-in for freight does not stack up

Yet there are lines being electrified in CP5 that currently have just one train an hour (Bedford - Bletchley, Bridgend - Maesteg, Cardiff - Ebbw Vale...)

 

[Eagle]

Remember that Bedford–Bletchley may be 1tph at the moment, but it'll increase to 2 or 3tph passenger and around 1tph freight once electrification is complete. (In fact the freight is the main reason it's being electrified.)

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Yet there are lines being electrified in CP5 that currently have just one train an hour (Bedford - Bletchley, Bridgend - Maesteg, Cardiff - Ebbw Vale...)

I agree about the some of the Valleys (East West should improve the Marston Vale flow).
The Valley lines all end in simple single low-speed branches which should be a low-cost project.
By contrast Middlesbrough is a rather complex double track route which will be expensive (but so is the Vale of Glamorgan route).
The Valleys business case is probably about reducing the operating cost and acquiring good-value used electric rolling stock to eliminate a large number of DMUs.
But politics can deliver surprising results sometimes.
The North East has not had much railway investment since ECML electrification, and it might be a case of which projects are "shovel ready" for the tranche of investment available.
I expect the Blackpool South branch has as good a business case as Maesteg, but the politics are not the same.