Wait - we are taking the Daily Express as "gospel" now? Did they find Princess Diana's will, in which she bequeathed the nation enough baubles to electrify the Valley Lines?
Still no Midland Main Line electrification.......
The valley lines has to come a distant second to that and the cross country route.
Depends what you're trying to do. If you want to get rid of Pacers and free up Sprinters to replace Pacers elsewhere, electrifying the Valleys is a good way to start.
Whilst I live on the MML (a long way away from Cardiff), I'd probably put the core Valley Lines ahead of the MML in terms of electrification - you'd free up thirty-something DMU diagrams (IIRC due to doubling up/ spares, we calculated that these would free up almost fifty Pacers, once any ATW 150s on Valley services were moved to replace Pacers elsewhere, which would be a huge boost before 31 December 2019).
My fear with MML electrification is that it won't be done "properly" - to work you'd need to wire the routes that the current St Pancras departures use (Bedford to Sheffield, Nottingham and Corby) plus:
- Nottingham to Chesterfield
- Sheffield to Doncaster
- Swinton to Moorthorpe
- Meadowhall to Leeds via Castleford
Plus potentially Derby to Birmingham too (to fill what would be a small unelectrified gap in the XC route from Glasgow to Birmingham down the ECML). Just wiring the basic route from Bedford to Nottingham and Sheffield would leave a lot of small unwired sections that could free up a number of Pacers (Sheffield to Adwick, Sheffield to Leeds via Dearne Valley, Sheffield to Leeds via Castleford) or free up other DMUs (Nottingham to Leeds, maybe even Sheffield to Hull if the line to the Humberside Riviera is being wired as part of the TPE North deal?).
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GWML, NW and TP electrification all started off with an announcement of a core section but have since grown, and in some cases might continue to do so - i expect the same will happen with the MML.
Chris
That's a fair point Chris - the initial announcements lacked some meaty sections like Manchester - Preston via Bolton - as one section is wired, so the business case for neighbouring schemes improves.
I just hope that we don't leave any daft little "islands" (like Coventry - Nuneaton or Ashford - Ore) when these schemes are done, because it may take a long time to resolve.