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Looks like they’re bringing APT back...re-opening 1960s lines, with 1980s rolling stock (second image down).
Glad to see the haven’t wasted too much of the budget on the promotional graphics.
Glad to see the haven’t wasted too much of the budget on the promotional graphics.
Or on the Northumberland line
Haha! That's an amazing graphic. It's a Brexit Britain Eutopia - a return to 1960s railways with 1970s rolling stock. I almost said "like the good old days" but it sort of was - a nationalised rail service and genuine innovation in locomotive design.
Joking aside, it would be great for the Tories to undo some of the damage they did in the 60s to east-west rail travel. It's needed much more than HS2.
Indeed. The North getting the same investment as South again.
It does raise the question about what other lines to get reopened. The borders line seems to have been a success - where else are there closed lines worth reopening?
As someone who lives on a disused line, I can see the challenges. However it would transform some places and transport.
Of the £800M just £34M is for the Northumberland line.
That's very creative levelling up. 🤦
They're not electrifying the Oxford-Cambridge line. It'll be diesel trains or the yet to be invented hydrogen/helium/levitating train.
Joking aside, it would be great for the Tories to undo some of the damage they did in the 60s to east-west rail travel. It’s needed much more than HS2.
Very much this. I'd like to think a side effect of the pandemic and changing work/travel patterns would be a review of infrastructure priorities.
When asked by the BBC why the lines wouldn't be electrified, he said these lines might potentially bypass the overhead wire technology altogether.
"We're building it in such a way that we can use, probably, the very latest technology, potentially, in the future," he said.
That's an amazing way of saying we just don't want to spend the money on it right now.
Indeed. The North getting the same investment as South again.
Except the Oxford Cambridge one is getting close to a billion pounds but the Northumberland one just £34million...
Great. Can we have some cash for Welsh lines next please? Starting with the Brecon to Merthyr line which is mostly still there.
Yeah Wales to me seems the obvious candidate, particularly poor road network and plenty of easy to reinstate rail lines.
It does raise the question about what other lines to get reopened. The borders line seems to have been a success – where else are there closed lines worth reopening?
I believe there's a push to complete the job and re-open the Borders line all the way to Carlisle.
The boarders line would certainly make a lot more sense if it connected to the south either Carlisle or Berwick. I must confess I thought it would be a white elephant being a dead end line to Gala - I mean who wants to go to Gala and stay there? But by all accounts ( pre covid) its been a success with plenty of folk using it and not just commuters
These are the lines which made it to the next round of funding if anyone is interested;
I’m involved in the Barrow Hill and Waverley station schemes in Sheffield. Fingers crossed they’ll get done.
https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1352934932830707713?s=19
That EWR line is yet another example of a dysfunctional DfT reporting to a Treasury working to antiquated methodology.
This country has no idea how to run infrastructure which is a shame because the Rail industry itself is actually very very good, there's s huge amount of expertise in there. But it's shackled behind blinkered thinking, lack of ambition and lack of leadership.
Surely it's cheaper to electrify as they build it rather than have to retrofit it? Seems a bit short-sighted.
^^ Yes, much cheaper to do it in the build rather than tack it on later.
Sums up this Government. Short sighted, blinkered, no ambition and yet somehow they'll still try to claim it's "world beating".
Should have given the project to the Chinese or Japanese - we'd have had a fleet of trains doing 200mph back and forth for 5 years by this point!
As it is, sometime by about 2030, 8 years later than promised, we'll have a few knackered old diesels chugging along at 50mph.
The problem is that the east to west line already largely exists, some bits haven't even had the track removed. So the bulk of it is already built.
There are battery trains being launched in the UK, both rehashed ones made out of old tube stock and brand new locomotives (Stadler are making a tri mode Class 93 on the same platform as the class 68 and 88 for launch here in 2023).
The whole electric train thing at the moment is madness. There are EU mandated emissions regulations that make it very difficult to launch new diesel trains, but it's only really the UK that's so reliant on them as much of Europe is electrified. The UK government has been as short sighted as ever by banning new diesel locomotives after 2040, being bound by the EU emissions regs and then not putting up any cash for electrification. So train companies are just putting new engines in 50 year old locomotives and dodging the regs that way.
I think Levenmouth is getting a new line in Scotland which will at least connect some of the poorer bits of Fife, perhaps gentrifying them a bit with people who might move out of Edinburgh but still go there for work.
@murobiker when I was examining a bridge outside diageo in methil I met a guy from BAM who stated he was walking the line to establish access points for the groundworks to reopen that line.
I'm not involved in either one of those projects but I know people involved in one of them and I'm surprised at the reception.
Although involving either Chinese or Japanese may not be as easy as solution as the post above suggests.
Except the Oxford Cambridge one is getting close to a billion pounds but the Northumberland one just £34million…
I was being sarcastic. Perhaps a forum doesn't convey it well...
Great. Can we have some cash for Welsh lines next please? Starting with the Brecon to Merthyr line which is mostly still there.
That'd be a devolved item, so complain to Cardiff. They are spending rather a lot at the moment upgrading some of the Valleys lines. Ebbw Vale has missed out a bit, there was a press release saying services are doubling on the Ebbw Line, but, the new services only go halfway, as it is single line up to Ebbw, so there is no current capacity.
They have opted for some 'light rail' too. Rather than keep up to main line standards, the lines will be designed and maintained to light rail standards, which seems a bit of a backward step. The 'new' trains being introduced are not new either, they have been refurb'd but are 30 years old, and using batteries/hydrogen, they havent totally decided yet, rather than electrifying the lines, which, after the completion of London to Cardiff, would seem to be the obvious thing to do to electrify the ~20 miles of the most used Valleys lines.
And, they are still paying millions a year for the very under used (even before Covid) service between Cardiff and Holyhead, which rather than being a decent transport connection, is just a political manoeuvre to say 'we havent forgot about North Wales'
I love the idea of a physical transport system to connect the two hi-tech development centres in Oxford and Cambridge. Oh AND why not build a better road link too?
If we are determined not to develop better systems of working without travelling then at least just encourage people to use the train and not duplicate the route with a ****ing road.
And any company that decides after this is started in earnest to work on teleconferencing systems to avoid the need for this should be forced to pay part of the cost.
Wasn’t oxford to Cambridge largely “preserved” by cautious planning rejections on the hope that one day it would come back? About time.
which rather than being a decent transport connection, is just a political manoeuvre to say ‘we havent forgot about North Wales’
I seem to remember there being a flight from Cardiff to Anglesey for the same reason. My old boss used to use it and frequently described being one of only a few people on it and not unusual to be the only person in the Anglesey airport (RAF Valley) at times.
I love the idea of a physical transport system to connect the two hi-tech development centres in Oxford and Cambridge
It's an aspiration. It will be many years before/if it opens all the way. There is currently a study going on into which route to take from Bedford to Cambridge. There will be completely new sections on this bit as any old railway structure has been obliterated, or takes a tortuous route.
Once that study has concluded where it is to run, there will be public enquiries, then a Government Bill before it can be built. I reckon at least 20 years, as there is little business case for it now.
The sections between Oxford and Bedford are mostly mothballed, or to be run on currently used lines, as stated earlier, so this section is far easier to reopen - no public enquiries etc.