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Charged up

The time finally seems right for a large-scale electrification programme on the railways. Ben Sampson reports

The railway industry doesn’t do sudden changes in direction. There’s isn’t much deviation in a railway, it’s point-to-point along a set line, every time. It’s the kind of ingrained straightness that doesn’t come naturally to politicians, who are prone to the occasional U-turn.

The government’s summertime policy reversal about the electrification of railway lines is a case in point. It doesn’t take a lot of technical nous to realise that an electric railway has many advantages over a fossil-fuelled one, especially during these times of eco-awareness. So many engineers were left bemused by the Department for Transport’s decision in 2007 to put off further electrification, then amused a year later when then minister for transport Ruth Kelly announced more electrification.

The impetus to electrify has not diminished. Earlier this month the new transport minister, Geoff Hoon, announced a government study into electrification as a way of improving the use of our existing transport infrastructure. According to Cliff Perry, the chairman of the Railway Engineers’ Forum, a cross-institution body that represents engineers in the railway sector, the government’s moves are in line with a railway industry overwhelmingly in favour of electrification. “There is a consensus that now is the right time. The business case is stronger than ever, there are strong environmental benefits, and you reduce your dependence on oil. It really is just common sense,” he says.

As well as the traditional advantages, such as electric trains being cheaper, quieter, more reliable, more comfortable, with additional capacity and less expensive fuel, there are winning sustainability issues. A train fully loaded with passengers and fuelled from low-carbon sources of electricity is the most environmentally friendly way of travelling, asserts Perry.

Plans for electrification are well advanced. Network Rail has been working since April on an electrification strategy and a report is expected in May.

The favoured method is a “mobile electrification factory”, which consists of three trains, one for piling, one for masts and one for wiring. The “factory” groups would work single lines in eight-hour shifts and use the latest construction techniques and modular, ready-to-use equipment to minimise disruption and costs. The highly automated factories would move around the network under a rolling programme that builds up over three years and runs at a peak level for five to six years. The costs come in at around £450,000 per mile of single track.

The timescale fits in with rolling stock procurement with many diesel trains built in the early 1980s due to go out of service by 2020.

Against this is the fact that virtually no electrification work has been carried out in the last 10 years and there is a shortage of skilled workers. Jeremy Candfield, director general of the Railway Industry Association says suppliers could not launch a major programme in 2014 from “a standing start”. This opens up the possibility of the Office of Rail Regulation giving the go-ahead to additional electrification during the recently agreed CP4 period (2009-2014).

Other large changes planned over the next decade, such as introducing the signalling technology ERTMS, have to be considered in careful planning. “We need to avoid having several sets of engineers undertaking different projects on the same line at different times,” he says. “You do not want to resignal the line then have to replace it all to be compatible with electrification.”

He adds though that the ERTMS approach reduces lineside equipment, easing issues of signal sighting. Allowing bi-directional working on an open track would also mitigate the impact of electrification work.

Whatever details remain to be fleshed out, the bare bones of a plan exist and the signs are all positive that electrification may be pushed forward, perhaps even with a new level of understanding between politicians and the railway industry.

STATION TO STATION

Only 39% of the UK’s railway infrastructure is electrified. The West Coast Mainline was the first large-scale electrification project, conducted between 1956 and 1966.

The East Coast Mainline was electrified between 1985 and 1990. Since then the building of electric lines has been piecemeal: between Cambridge and Kings Lynn, in Birmingham and Leeds, the Heathrow Express, and most recently HSL1 between St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel.

Various infill electrification projects, where gaps in existing electrified routes are closed and the lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow electrified, would be conducted first. After 2014 industry experts expect the first major works programme to be the Great Western Mainline followed by the Midland Mainline.

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