LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
The best feature of the NR Electrification RUS was that it painted a detailed picture of the costs and benefits of electrification, and the value of a rolling programme across the country.
I don't think anyone takes the individual priorities and BCRs seriously. There will always be outside factors, and politics, to consider.
The NW electrification is really about redeploying Thameslink rolling stock, and "kick-starting" a rolling programme in the north (and it keeps the northern MPs and PTE's at bay).
TP electrification builds on this and begins to get strategic/incremental.
Thames Valley electrification ditto, on the back of Crossrail and the Reading rebuild.
GW main line is the obvious rolling extension, and keeps the WAG quiet (well, almost).
By contrast, MML doesn't do a lot for the wider network (unless it reaches Leeds/Doncaster), and there isn't the same rolling stock cascade.
Basingstoke-Exeter might seem logical to NSE folk and 3rd-railers but again has little network benefit. It is also "more spend in the rich SE".
Cross Country is pointless until some of the other building blocks are in place.
I would look to some more "political" authorisations, spreading the largesse around the country, rather than the proposed NR sequence.
And then there is IEP. Currently a bigger sacred cow than electrification.
And HS2.
I don't think anyone takes the individual priorities and BCRs seriously. There will always be outside factors, and politics, to consider.
The NW electrification is really about redeploying Thameslink rolling stock, and "kick-starting" a rolling programme in the north (and it keeps the northern MPs and PTE's at bay).
TP electrification builds on this and begins to get strategic/incremental.
Thames Valley electrification ditto, on the back of Crossrail and the Reading rebuild.
GW main line is the obvious rolling extension, and keeps the WAG quiet (well, almost).
By contrast, MML doesn't do a lot for the wider network (unless it reaches Leeds/Doncaster), and there isn't the same rolling stock cascade.
Basingstoke-Exeter might seem logical to NSE folk and 3rd-railers but again has little network benefit. It is also "more spend in the rich SE".
Cross Country is pointless until some of the other building blocks are in place.
I would look to some more "political" authorisations, spreading the largesse around the country, rather than the proposed NR sequence.
And then there is IEP. Currently a bigger sacred cow than electrification.
And HS2.
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