I don't think there would be enough paths north of Leeds, even with the acceleration benefits electrification brings. But a London-Doncaster-Leeds-York(-Newcastle) service might have merits, depending on the stopping patterns.
The same merits that the Euston-Birmingham-Scotland services had, although that and presumably this service would require that such a service would take over the path of another service. I think the target was to have a roughly 20 minute travel time from Leeds to York, adding that to the current Doncaster to Leeds travel time and a 5 minute dwell at Leeds would give you a 55 minute York to Doncaster journey time, still roughly 30 minutes longer than the direct route.
That's a very limited benefit though. Although given that Leeds-Micklefield is in the pipeline, with York-Selby being already under a reasonable amount of wires you could make a case for Mickelfield-Leeds, plus the Hambleton curves and Sherburn chord, which would give you the Leeds-Scotland services.
I seen the very same thing as I was driving under the bridge.
"The mid-2020s" is the only date I've seen. Amazingly vague.
It never took BR this long to tie in new electrification to existing electrified lines and many were done over normal weekend possessions. Granted Colton Jcn isn't as simple but really ought to have delivered it one blockade. Anyhow thats todays railway for you but getting the Leeds side done is pretty straightforward and should have been energised to get some reduced diesel running for TPE but looks like nothing will be taking power this end for another 18mths. In the same construction time BR had got the wires upto Peterborough from Hitchin and had a service running to Huntingdon in 18mths from first mast installation. The team delivering the wiring on this stretch have delivered to a high volume and show what can be achieved but there is little point talking about the urgency of decarbonisation if the industry isn't going to use what it has installed quickly.
Coming through York the other Day there seemed to be sizeable amounts of new S&C presumably scheduled to go in over Christnas. Would seem sensible to extend the possession to cover Colton and tie in the new wires then too.and put the power on then too.
The pain of stopping trains will need to happen at some point. Given the current strikes there are days when few run at all.
I don't think there's any plan to do so at this stage.
Having spent my career in Railway Engineering and Major Projects yes I fully understand the sequencing of the workers challenge. These would be two worksites a few miles apart. So not inhibiting each sites work area. Some thought would need to be given to trains and equipment working on both sites. However not an impossible task. If the main lines were kept open they could be used with the OHL isolated and trains run on diesel mode.
How do you keep the main lines open when you're tying in the OLE at the junction?
They are off course only tying in the OHL on the slow lines at Colton but an isolation of the area would needed.
Are they not tying in all 4 lines? Or are they planning to do the other pair later? (They're Leeds/Normantons not fast/slow round there).
I would be surprised if that were the case. As far as I can see, from Colton Junction there are four tracks being newly electrictrifed to Leeds/Normanton and there are four tracks already electrified towards York. It would be odd not to tie together all four tracks at the same time.
All 4 tracks from Colton Junction to York have been electrified since the ECML upgrade in the late 80s/early 90s. This included an overrun length onto all 4 tracks towards Leeds.
My error. But I didn't see much of an over-run on Google streetview. This image is the view from Colton Lane, north towards the junction, dating from 2019. The footbridge visible is beyond the junction itself.
i didn’t explain very well.
I think the overruns were mainly to mitigate against stranding if there was a wrong-routing. The benefit to later extension is a bonus. I don't know the ins and outs, but tying in the knitting itself isn't a major job, but does involve isolating the OLE for the entire section and working at height, so would need trains stopped. The two pairs might be far enough apart to keep trains running on the pair not being worked on, but the isolation will almost certainly be all-lines so it'll need coasting or diesel running.
No, not even Hull will get electrified despite posters at the station heralding 'Full electrification'!