Network Rail press release on Electrification

[joeykins82]

We've appointed four suppliers to deliver a £2bn programme to electrify more than two thousand miles of Britain’s railway over the next seven years, providing faster, quieter, greener and more reliable journeys for passengers and freight users and cutting the cost of the railway.

Once electrification schemes including the Great Western and Midland main lines, Liverpool to Manchester and Preston, the Valley lines in south Wales and the ‘electric spine’ from Southampton docks to the West Midlands and Yorkshire are complete, more than half Britain’s rail network will be electrified with electric trains accounting for three-quarters of all traffic.

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/2...e-railway-across-Britain-moves-a-step-closer/

There are 6 geographic framework contracts:

• Southern region: AmeyInabensa
• Central (London North Western, South) region: ABC
• Central (East Midlands) region: CarillionPowerlines
• Central (London North Western, North) region: Balfour Beatty
• Scotland and North East region: CarillionPowerlines
• Western and Wales region: ABC

Hopefully this will lead to some clarity with the delivery order and schedules and maybe we'll see some acceleration of the originally proposed dates if there are 6 teams working.

 

[tbtc]

more than two thousand miles of Britain’s railway over the next seven years

Okay, maybe they are counting both sides of double track on the ~thousand miles I thought CP5 committed to (don't want to get excited about what sounds like a higher figure), but seven years? We've previously seen suggestion that the MML to Sheffield and the Valley Lines will take until CP6 to complete, does this suggest any other commitments are being pushed further into the future?

 

[swt_passenger]

Well, now that they've appointed an electrification contractor for the 'Southern region', and mention the 'electric spine' in the same release, does that mean people might start believing that they really are going to convert the SWML to 25 kV?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Well, now that they've appointed an electrification contractor for the 'Southern region', and mention the 'electric spine' in the same release, does that mean people might start believing that they really are going to convert the SWML to 25 kV?

The government told them to so they are doing it!

It was only the timescale NR were concerned about rather than the feasibility. The construction method will be a very very very interesting thing to read in terms of minimising disruption.

 

[swt_passenger]

The government told them to so they are doing it!

That's my view too. Yet we do keep getting posts where people use pretty flimsy evidence, IMHO, to suggest it won't happen...

 

[TheKnightWho]

Well, now that they've appointed an electrification contractor for the 'Southern region', and mention the 'electric spine' in the same release, does that mean people might start believing that they really are going to convert the SWML to 25 kV?

Presumably only the Basingstoke to Southampton bit, right?

 

[swt_passenger]

Presumably only the Basingstoke to Southampton bit, right?

Oh sure. Let's walk before we run etc. I just thought it fairly significant that they've appointed a term contractor for the entire region though...

 

[joeykins82]

I know that you can't operate AC & DC simultaneously without expensive dual voltage kit, but would it be possible to install the gantries and cables required along the whole length of the line due for conversion and then in one (extended) possession disconnect the DC systems and energise the AC? Obviously it's a gross oversimplification to say "switch the DC off and then turn the AC on"; it'd be a huge undertaking but I imagine it'd also be the least disruptive option overall.

 

[swt_passenger]

I know that you can't operate AC & DC simultaneously without expensive dual voltage kit, but would it be possible to install the gantries and cables required along the whole length of the line due for conversion and then in one (extended) possession disconnect the DC systems and energise the AC? Obviously it's a gross oversimplification to say "switch the DC off and then turn the AC on"; it'd be a huge undertaking but I imagine it'd also be the least disruptive option overall.

The civils work and mast erection etc should be possible in normal possessions, especially if they were to use a HOPS style system. Tunnel clearances will be the likely work that affects the existing service most.

The electrical implications of changeover would come somewhat later in the project.

 

[TheKnightWho]

I imagine they're going to work inwards, so I'd guess after this it'll be the remainder of the route to Weymouth before they start on anything else.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

That's my view too. Yet we do keep getting posts where people use pretty flimsy evidence, IMHO, to suggest it won't happen...

One excuse is that there is going to be a General Election in May 2015. IMHO this does not hold water either. I could argue the coalition will pressure for an increase in the speed at which things are done before the election. Post election, I really believe whoever wins will continue the programme. Adonis signed off on electrification 2009 - I really doubt it will get cancelled/postponed or even delayed.

 

[SansPareil]

Presumably you need quite a time period for some rather robust testing of any potential interferences between signalling, track circuits and return currents etc.

 

[edwin_m]

Most modern signalling equipment, notably track circuits and axle counters, is immune against both DC and AC return currents. So in areas resignalled in the last decade or so the problems of changing the electrification are much less than on older equipment. As I recall most of the Basingstoke to Southampton section was re-signalled in the last few years, but inwards from Basingstoke you soon get into the Waterloo signalling centre area which is vintage around 1990.

 

[ianhr]

I know that you can't operate AC & DC simultaneously without expensive dual voltage kit, but would it be possible to install the gantries and cables required along the whole length of the line due for conversion and then in one (extended) possession disconnect the DC systems and energise the AC? Obviously it's a gross oversimplification to say "switch the DC off and then turn the AC on"; it'd be a huge undertaking but I imagine it'd also be the least disruptive option overall.

Well the Southern did it 1927-9 the 'other way around' when they decommisioned the LBSCR 6kV AC electrification and converted it all to 660vDC on the Vic/London Br to Sutton & Coulsdon North lines. Admittedly I think most of the signalling was still semaphore, but presumably track circuited. Nonetheless I don't think there was more than a few hours without public service.

 

[59CosG95]

This is how I'd imagine Southern Region conversion would go, starting in the west and spreading gradually eastwards:

1. Basingstoke-Southampton (part and parcel of the Electric Spine)
2. Southampton-Weymouth and Brockenhurst-Lymington Pier (*)
3. Portsmouth-St Denys and Eastleigh; Basingstoke-Woking and Alton-Brookwood (dual-voltage between Ash Vale & Aldershot as 456s will use that part of the line, until their replacement)
4. Portsmouth Direct Line and North Downs line (Guildford-Reading)
5. Portsmouth-Havant-Brighton (+branches); North Downs Line (Guildford-Redhill)
6. Surbiton-Woking, New Guildford Line, and chord to Mole Valley Line, Mole and Arun Valley Lines
7. Brighton Main Line-Brighton-Clapham and Selhurst-London Bridge, SWML Clapham-Surbiton and its various tributaries, Wimbledon Loop
8. BML to Victoria, West London line to existing AC infrastructure, SWML to Waterloo
9. Windsor Line and Waterloo-Reading Line and its various tributaries, remaining Southern Inner Suburban lines
10. Chatham and South Eastern Mainlines (+branches), Redhill-Tonbridge, Wealden lines (+ potentially reopened Uckfield-Lewes), Marshlink line
11. Remaining SE Metro and Mainline routes
12. Romsey Locals, Wessex Main line (Bath/Chippenham-Salisbury-So'ton) West of England Main line (+doubling to Exeter)
[this would likely be done as part of Electrification from Bristol-Exeter]
Sorry I can't provide much about Southern and Southeastern- I'm very much a SWT man!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/2...e-railway-across-Britain-moves-a-step-closer/

There are 6 geographic framework contracts:

• Southern region: AmeyInabensa
• Central (London North Western, South) region: ABC
• Central (East Midlands) region: CarillionPowerlines
• Central (London North Western, North) region: Balfour Beatty
• Scotland and North East region: CarillionPowerlines
• Western and Wales region: ABC

Hopefully this will lead to some clarity with the delivery order and schedules and maybe we'll see some acceleration of the originally proposed dates if there are 6 teams working.

This is useful clarification and should sort out how much NR can do in parallel.
7 years plus potentially 3 more takes us to the end of CP6.
Some info here on who the consortia are: http://www.theconstructionindex.co....-wins-place-on-rail-electrification-framework

AmeyInabensa is a 50-50 JV between Amey (owned by Ferrovial of Spain) and Spanish company Inabensa: http://www.amey.co.uk/Media/PressRe...rk-Rail-s-National-Electrification-progr.aspx

It doesn't quite fit the current contract allocation (eg GW is being largely done by Amey but the NR announcement says Western and Wales is ABC (Alstom/Babcock/Costain).

 

[joeykins82]

Is Amey doing GWML or Crossrail? Or is the Wales & Western contract going to cover the bits of the GWML outside the original GWML contract perhaps (Thames Valley branches, Reading-Basingstoke, Valley lines)

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Is Amey doing GWML or Crossrail? Or is the Wales & Western contract going to cover the bits of the GWML outside the original GWML contract perhaps (Thames Valley branches, Reading-Basingstoke, Valley lines)

Amey is doing the GW main line Maidenhead-Bristol-Cardiff-Swansea (although the Cardiff-Swansea stretch seems to have different funding, involving the WG). Also Didcot-Oxford and Reading-Newbury.
Balfour Beatty was recently awarded Airport Jn-Maidenhead (ie the Crossrail-related section).
One can only think that the new ABC frame agreement covers other GW sections such as TV branches and Cardiff Valleys.
As ABC has LNW South as well, this will include Nuneaton-Oxford and I suppose Bedford-Oxford.
Reading (Southcote Jn)-Basingstoke is part of the Southern contract (mentioned in the Amey press release).
It's a little disappointing that TP East is no further forward.
Maybe contract awards will flow quicker now.

 

[overthewater]

How can Network Rail clamp both Scotland and North East region together when both are controlled by different administration?

 

[swt_passenger]

It's a little disappointing that TP East is no further forward.

Perhaps given the relatively small area involved that is subsumed in 'Scotland and NE'? In other words taking NE as shorthand for the LNE Network Rail route, rather than what I initially read it as, the sort of Northumberland and Durham area.

Thinking further about it, there didn't seem to be any planned electrification in that geographical 'NE'?

 

[IanXC]

Perhaps given the relatively small area involved that is subsumed in 'Scotland and NE'? In other words taking NE as shorthand for the LNE Network Rail route, rather than what I initially read it as, the sort of Northumberland and Durham area.

Thinking further about it, there didn't seem to be any planned electrification in that geographical 'NE'?

That's how I read it. Network Rail's LNE region has (for the moment) broadly Stalybridge-Leeds, Leeds-York, Leeds-Selby.

 

[Stats]

In 2012 NR placed a tender for

Network Rail Infrastructure Limited is using an alliance contracting arrangement to procure the programme of works relating to Power Supply Upgrades and Electrification to the UK Railway Infrastructure Network. The works comprised two stages of Power Supply Upgrade along the East Coast Main Line, Stage 1 - Wood Green to Bawtry and Stage 2 - Bawtry to Edinburgh and also the Electrification of the Transpennine Route (Stalybridge to Colton Junction, Hambleton Junctions and Selby and branches to Middlesborough Scarborough Hull and Cleethorpes).

Presumably, this tender was subsumed into the Scotland & North East framework awarded to CarillionPowerlines

 

[tadhatter]

I'm struggling to get my head around a potential overhead electrification of Clapham junction! I would imagine the it would be a logistical nightmare dye to the sheer volume of tracks - along with Clapham yard!

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm struggling to get my head around a potential overhead electrification of Clapham junction! I would imagine the it would be a logistical nightmare dye to the sheer volume of tracks - along with Clapham yard!

Not if you consider it as three separate railways that happen to run fairly close together. If you remember there is no running connection between the SN and SWT main line side it seems a lot simpler...


--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

How can Network Rail clamp both Scotland and North East region together when both are controlled by different administration?

Why does it matter - it's just an accounting issue? Do you think NR operates as two separate entities in England and Scotland?

 

[59CosG95]

I'm struggling to get my head around a potential overhead electrification of Clapham junction! I would imagine the it would be a logistical nightmare dye to the sheer volume of tracks - along with Clapham yard!

Don't forget, the L&SCR used to use AC units 100 years ago; the western approach has clearly visible catenary supports. The eastern approach will be more difficult to wire, it's true; but installing hoops à la Reading will make the job easier when the figurative bridge has to be crossed.