Also I would include wiring Wrexham - Bidston, stupid why it hasnt been electrified already.
I would have suggested it too, but it'd be done at a later date than at the point I was talking about and I expect would need a different electrification team (for 3rd rail rather than OHLE) to be set up. To make it worth setting up such a team, I'd say it should do Southern's two Turbostar routes first and then do Wexham-Bidston on the back of that.
The 3 carriage class 166's would be great for services between Bristol TM & Taunton.
If 166s/165s released by electrification are staying with FGW then that's were I'd suggest putting them too, if they can be cleared cheaply, with an EMU taking over Swansea (rather than Cardiff at present) - Bristol.
Realistically by the time the Valleys are electrified 150's will be life expired so posters getting excited about cascades need to think again. The main problem is that yes Valley lines electrification is a logical step for the end of this decade but what does the rest of Wales get?
It's going to be hard enough to replace Pacers by the 2020 disability complience deadline. I think, like Intercity 125s, the whole Sprinter series is going to need one hell of a lot of life-extension.
All interesting stuff - and so on , but the case for electrification of even the main line to Swansea wont get there with ideas of class 377 or similar. Just cant be afforded - period .
Ditto the Bidston line - unaffordable at 3d rail , and probably 25kV though an additional DMu service would make sense - and even that would need subsidy.
I seem to remember Wrexham - Bidston 3rd rail having two different prices quoted. Unafordable at Network Rail's price, but perhaps not at the lower sum Mersyrail came up with. As for Swansea - Cardff:
Re Cardiff to Swansea DfT's business case that couldn't be made of course assumed there was only 1 passenger train an hour on this line! 15% of the UK's freight passes over this section of line a lot between Llanwern and Port Talbot steel works DB have made no secret that electric haulage would benefit them.
When I really think about it, I think I understand how, given the totally daft way they were looking at it in isolation, the DfT came to that conclusion.
- With the rest of the GWML I think they were comparing current IC125s with IEP, hence journey time savings. With Swansea - Cardiff they are comparing IEP electrics to IEP bi-modes, rather than the IC125s. Had they done that elsewhere, I doubt there would have been much in the way of time savings anywhere. From what I've read online, bi-mode IEP, like Voyagers, seems to have been designed to accelerate like an electric train and hence I expect will also drink fuel alot faster than an IC125
- The maximum number of electric passenger trains per hour would be three, one to London, one to Bristol and a stopper to Cardiff
- The EMU fleet for the Swansea - Bristol and Swansea - Cardiff services would probablly be too small to warrant providing a maintenance facility
However, if you include Swansea-Cardiff with the ValleyLines scheme you have enough of an EMU fleet to justify having those 3 electric passenger trains an hour between Cardiff and Swansea. You also get a fourth electric train per hour, the one to Maesteg, between Cardiff and Bridgend if the Valleys are electrified.
As for freight, I don't know where it all comes from. Does anyone know how much of it would actually be on electrified lines for the whole jouney, or at least enough of it to justify swaping locos, if Swansea is electrified?
As for 377s, could enough EMUs be cascaded to run the valleys anyway? Regardless, I don't think the captial cost of a fleet of 60 377s would be even half that of the £600m Heads Of The Valleys road widening project and would be much cheaper over 30 years than leasing new EMUs.
, stayed at the big sleep,myself I might add, thats how I know, better stop now
