MML Electrification: progress updates

Edvid said:

Yes, RS3 will likely be the next phase if main works beyond Wigston are authorised, possibly in tandem with RS2b which is Leicester North Jn - Syston (the tricky bit through Leicester station is RS2a).

According to documentation issued with last October's contract notice (see post #6682), NR is following a staged approach where business case submission is concerned; two submissions are planned for spring 2024 and autumn 2025, which I presume will cover different halves of the project. It's increasingly clear that further Midland electrification, if it happens, will follow a pause of some length in construction activity.

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Doesn't Leicester-Syston need decisions made on capacity upgrades?

Meerkat said:

Doesn't Leicester-Syston need decisions made on capacity upgrades?

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According to #5169 it was decided two years ago that the section through Leicester would be electrified without waiting for any capacity upgrades, but maybe that decision was reversed when the Leicester section was postponed.

Well, the substation formerly known as South Wigston SATS (now changed to Wigston MPATS) is in - and it's the largest ASG25 containerised building Siemens have ever delivered!

Meanwhile there is but a little progress around Braybrooke. Nearly all the masts have cantilever arms fitted but there are no catenary or contact wires for around 1/2 mile. The Three Arch Bridge is still in place and providing a photographic point!

If you zoom in on the up side masts there’s the black flexible conduit present at the foot of the tall masts, presumably that’s for underground cable runs, does that indicate the connections from the feeder station extend quite a distance either side of the switching site?

swt_passenger said:

If you zoom in on the up side masts there’s the black flexible conduit present at the foot of the tall masts, presumably that’s for underground cable runs, does that indicate the connections from the feeder station extend quite a distance either side of the switching site?

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Not quite. Two pairs of black conduits (next to the up-side cross-track feeder masts, as you say) are visible in the picture; one for each buried connection pair to the switching site on the other side of the bridge.

In between those are a down-side twin-track cantilever and two portals; the neutral section will probably be registered on the portal closer by.

Flying Phil said:

The Three Arch Bridge is still in place

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Can't say I'm surprised. To be fair, the Wigston substation delivery job must have required a lot of staff...

Press release

Network Rail and train operators are reminding passengers to plan ahead and check before travelling as further improvement work to the Midland Main Line (MML) takes place across two weekends in March.

The project will see improvements to the current overhead line equipment south of Bedford and there will be further engineering work in addition to the MML upgrades to install new track between Syston and Helpston allowing for more reliable, quieter, and greener journeys for passengers.

Engineers have successfully completed two weekends of work in the past few weeks, with work to further electrify Kettering to Wigston, upgrades to existing overhead lines between Luton and Bedford, and cyclical maintenance taking place through the Thameslink core taking place on 25 February and 10 March.

On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 March, buses will replace trains between Luton and Bedford to allow for upgrades to the overhead lines which will allow for new trains to run at 125mph in the future.

Thameslink will run amended services south of Luton to and through central London, and EMR will operate a train shuttle service between London St Pancras and Luton, with trains running northbound from Bedford.

Passengers are also reminded that on 17 March and 23/24 March, engineers will be laying new track to deliver smoother journeys between Syston and Helpston, separate from the MML work, which will affect CrossCountry services from Leicester to Peterborough. A rail replacement bus will be in place to serve passengers along this route.

On the weekend of 23/24 March, there will be additional improvement work to the overhead lines south of Bedford and upgrades through Luton station as new switches and crossings are installed, the specialist equipment used by trains to change tracks from one to another, meaning smoother journeys for passengers.

Amended and reduced Thameslink services will operate south of Harpenden, where a rail replacement bus service will transfer passengers to Luton and Bedford. Trains will not call at London Bridge owing to further engineering work in that area.

East Midlands Railway will operate no services between Bedford and London St Pancras on the affected weekend. EMR passengers should travel on Thameslink from London Kings Cross to Hitchin, where a rail replacement bus service will operate to Bedford, connecting passengers to EMR services towards Sheffield and Nottingham.

Passengers are urged to check their journey before travelling via National Rail Enquiries or through their train operator.[/quote[

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A quick survey of the Kettering to South Wigston section sees that the last remaining sections without catenary are Desborough, next to the Co-op, and as reported by Flying Phil, the Braybrooke supply to south of Market Harborough.

The Wistow area bridge saga rumbles on. This from the local MP on Facebook
*Fleckney and Wistow Bridges Meeting*
On Monday I brought together a meeting with people from Network Rail, Leicestershire County Council and some of the businesses at Wistow Rural Centre who have been particularly hard hit by the closures of Newton Lane, Wistow Road and Station Road.
We had a full & frank exchange of views about the mistakes that have been made during this process. While station road being closed by an accident was unlucky, I told them the decision to replan the bridge at Newton Lane and make the planned closure even longer has been disproportionate to the risks they are trying to mitigate – which is to do with a lack of visibility of (very infrequent) traffic from the two tracks that come onto the road just south of the railway bridge.
I and local businesses asked why these issues hadn’t been fixed at the planning stage. Leicestershire County Council said this was because they had allowed Network Rail to get going without a finalised design in order to meet the timings of the electrification work. This is obviously infuriating. They agreed that in future, as the railway electrification passes through the rest of the county, they will not allow this again.
I pressed for a time for the reopening of Newton Lane bridge. They said this would be done by the end of June, which is very bad news. We pressed them on why this can’t happen faster. They said it is a combination of gas works, sewers, times when they can close the railway and a large crane which they are bringing on site.
At this point I said that if they can’t get Newton Lane open sooner they needed to get the other bridge in Newton Harcourt (on Wistow Road) open. The work on that bridge will apparently be done by April but they been planning to keep both shut till June.
They were a bit resistant as Wistow Road is a narrow single track road, but they have agreed to look at opening it one-way going south and come back to us by Monday next week (18th). That would make it easier to get down to Wistow, speed up journeys compared to going via Station Rd and at least reduce the amount of people going through the eastern end of Newton Harcourt.
Network Rail agreed to work to speed up the process of paying compensation to affected businesses.
For the third time I asked for them to remove the incorrect sign at the junction with Glen that says Station Road will shut from 11 March. (I originally asked for this to happen in February).
We also talked about why the planned lights on the railway bridge on station road (where the temporary ones are) were not put in while it was shut. The whole thing comes back to the lack of a detailed plan. I said that whenever they are put in (and they promise it will not close until Newton Lane reopens) it needs to happen quickly.
To conclude: a lot of mistakes have been made here. Things like reopening Station Road should have happened much sooner - if it even needed to be shut at all.
The meeting enabled local business and local people to tell Network Rail and LCC directly what a devastating impact it has had – I know many people in Fleckney feel exactly the same and feel trapped by endless road closures.
I hope the meeting will lead not just to faster compensation but also a sensible solution to enable the use of Wistow Road until Newton Lane reopens. I’m doing what I can and I share the frustration of residents that these two big organisations have made so many mistakes and communicated so badly.

Viewing AIVR from footage uploaded yesterday, all the BWAs on the Fasts from Bedford to just south of Ampthill Tunnel have now been upgraded to Anti-Fall types. Excluding 3 BWAs (1 on the DF & 2 on the UF), this extends further south to just north of Harlington.

Nothing of this kind south of Luton AFAIK, although more programme-savvy members amongst us might know more.

Another OLE125 weekend possession between Luton and Bedford today.

Earlier this morning I spotted 4 (I think) mobile elevating work platforms from a rail replacement service, just south of Flitwick station (and another to the north); more headspan renewals, I'm guessing.

The Fast Lines from Harpenden northwards were also under a possession I noted from the track diagram associated with the Railcam installation at St Albans South box. Not clear if this was simply because they needed to switch trains at Harpenden to avoid intruding north of Luton or if they were actually working south of Luton on the fasts.

PJM said:

Ok, so the canal bridge? Or river/stream? So they rebuilt a single flow bridge with a single flow bridge with traffic lights. As previously suggested, why on on earth was it not made into a 2 way carriageway?

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Re this bridge. Travelling from Great Glen, after the railway bridge there is a canal bridge and then a bridge over a stream, both significantly narrower, so widening wouldn't have made a huge difference. Re the lights, they're currently 3 way, also enabling access to/from the rail bed, I would expect they'll go to just 2 way once the work is done. The sighting of the lights has changed recently as work is being done on the approach to the bridge.

Tim__ said:

Re this bridge. Travelling from Great Glen, after the railway bridge there is a canal bridge and then a bridge over a stream, both significantly narrower, so widening wouldn't have made a huge difference. Re the lights, they're currently 3 way, also enabling access to/from the rail bed, I would expect they'll go to just 2 way once the work is done. The sighting of the lights has changed recently as work is being done on the approach to the bridge.

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The stream is in fact the river Sence but yes it is not much more than a stream by then.

Last weekend also saw the completion of OHNS renewal work at Sundon. With the fittings at Grahame Park (and Borehamwood too, it seems) already renewed, that's an OLE Cubed milestone ticked off.


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OLE125 work entered another phase as re-tensioning of the first pair of wire runs took place on Sunday, within the planned Wixams worksite. The latter will involve replacing 15 headspans with portals, so I wonder why the re-tensioning started here of all places (some OLE125-compliant work was carried out in the delivery of Brent Cross West, IIRC).

The applicable wire runs fall under system design MK3B-05-AT-S; no pictures of the BWAs though.


For the time being, current engineering work timetables suggest no further south-of-Bedford Midland possessions beyond the usual post-Saturday overnighters are pencilled in until 1/2 June (Luton - West Hampstead Thameslink).

Edvid said:

Last weekend also saw the completion of OHNS renewal work at Sundon. With the fittings at Grahame Park (and Borehamwood too, it seems) already renewed, that's an OLE Cubed milestone ticked off.

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#OLECubed News Appreciate the news update Glyn Oliver on the latest update from the #OLE Cubed Project from this weekend. Last two of the scoped 8 Arthur…

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OLE125 work entered another phase as re-tensioning of the first pair of wire runs took place on Sunday, within the planned Wixams worksite. The latter will involve replacing 15 headspans with portals, so I wonder why the re-tensioning started here of all places (some OLE125-compliant work was carried out in the delivery of Brent Cross West, IIRC).

The applicable wire runs fall under system design MK3B-05-AT-S; no pictures of the BWAs though.

[Video] SPL POWERLINES UK on LinkedIn: SPL Powerlines OLE 125 Site Visit | 10 comments

On Sunday as part of the OLE 125 Compatibility Project SPL POWERLINES UK re-tensioned the first 2 wire runs South of Bedford and entered into service the new… | 10 comments on LinkedIn

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For the time being, current engineering work timetables suggest no further south-of-Bedford Midland possessions beyond the usual post-Saturday overnighters are pencilled in until 1/2 June (Luton - West Hampstead Thameslink).

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My money is that the programme of works for OLE125 takes precedence over that for Wixams OLE Portal Installation. Besides, the precise design of portal placement may not affect the anchor locations.

NR posted a timelapse of activities at the Wigston site on their Twitter channel, including delivery of the MPATS (which was also skilfully done by low loader).

BIB is somewhat premature, mind you!

A mid-point auto-transformer [substation] has been installed at Wigston! Providing consistent power for MML trains, it separates electric power feeds coming from Braybrooke & East Midlands Parkway. It's the largest substation of its kind and provides space for future electrification equipment

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Edvid said:

NR posted a timelapse of activities at the Wigston site on their Twitter channel, including delivery of the MPATS (which was also skilfully done by low loader).

BIB is somewhat premature, mind you!

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I like the use of oh gantries and future proofed as well to cover for electrification North and West. Whether it ever gets used the jurys out.

Edvid said:

NR posted a timelapse of activities at the Wigston site on their Twitter channel, including delivery of the MPATS (which was also skilfully done by low loader).

BIB is somewhat premature, mind you!

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Braybrooke's already gone live at the National Grid end, and the grid connection at Kegworth is all but confirmed.

59CosG95 said:

Braybrooke's already gone live at the National Grid end, and the grid connection at Kegworth is all but confirmed.

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but will Kegworth ever have anything to feed!

I recall Leicester is being left out for the time being, as a gap, whilst they come up with a solution with the low bridge at the south end of the station. There’s the station buildings and busy main road above and a sewer below, so limited options.

The next stages I believe are Leicester north. Although where will the starting point be? Around Syston or north of Leicester station/Humberstone Road sidings?

londonmidland said:

I recall Leicester is being left out for the time being, as a gap, whilst they come up with a solution with the low bridge at the south end of the station. There’s the station buildings and busy main road above and a sewer below, so limited options.

The next stages I believe are Leicester north. Although where will the starting point be? Around Syston or north of Leicester station/Humberstone Road sidings?

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Probably Syston station, although could be north of Syston North Jn if that's where a Neutral Section would be.
Starting any closer to Leicester is unlikely if there is still any doubt about potential track remodelling for freight.

zwk500 said:

Probably Syston station, although could be north of Syston North Jn if that's where a Neutral Section would be.
Starting any closer to Leicester is unlikely if there is still any doubt about potential track remodelling for freight.

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Any re-modelling would probably encompass at least part of the east and west legs of Syston triangle, which suggests that electrification would probably start on the four-track section north of Syston North.

Nicholas Lewis said:

but will Kegworth ever have anything to feed!

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I'm sure it will eventually. And given the political focus on cost per single track kilometre, then I'd expect the next section will be the simple four-track section from Syston North to East Midlands Parkway.

Nottingham59 said:

I'm sure it will eventually. And given the political focus on cost per single track kilometre, then I'd expect the next section will be the simple four-track section from Syston North to East Midlands Parkway.

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That's what all the sources seem to suggest.

59CosG95 said:

That's what all the sources seem to suggest.

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Would they do all four tracks at the same time or fast and slow at different times do you think.

baz962 said:

Would they do all four tracks at the same time or fast and slow at different times do you think.

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Surely at same time? Less possessions that way.

GRALISTAIR said:

Surely at same time? Less possessions that way.

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I was wondering though. If you don't then trains can still run over one set .

baz962 said:

Would they do all four tracks at the same time or fast and slow at different times do you think.

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GRALISTAIR said:

Surely at same time? Less possessions that way.

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baz962 said:

I was wondering though. If you don't then trains can still run over one set .

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I imagine it'll be over separate weekends but the project will wire all 4 tracks. I'm not sure if the 10-foot is wide enough to allow working on an adjacent line, but you can pile a TTC on either cess side within a 2-track possession. Although all-line blocks would likely be needed for portal gantries and to do the junctions.

baz962 said:

Would they do all four tracks at the same time or fast and slow at different times do you think.

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My understanding is that one of the benefits of Twin Track Cantilevers is that they can be installed over two tracks of a four track railway, while the other pair of tracks stays in use. So I'd expect that to happen. The slows between Syston and Trent are very lightly used, so this should be possible with relatively little disruption,except at Loughborough which has only one short slow platform.

At normal times, there is no traction on the slows that can use electrification. So in a sane world, they would electrify the fasts and then move on to another area where electrification will deliver immediate benefits. But given the political imperative to demonstrate lower costs per single track kilometre, I expect they will do all four tracks before anywhere else.