New calls to electrify Midland mainline

[whole diary]

[Lee]

From the Leicester Mercury:

New calls to electrify railway line

A new call has been made for the electrification of the Midland Mainline.

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday at Transport Questions, Leicester South MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) Jon Ashworth said that the upgrade of this line should be a top priority and asked what update the government had on the issue.

He said: "With the economy in the doldrums, infrastructure investment is absolutely vital to get it moving again. Electrification of the Midland Mainline would be a major driver of economic growth locally and regionally and I want the government to give a firm commitment to making it happen."

An improvement to the line would lead to shorter journey times to and from London.

In response to his question, Theresa Villiers, a department for transport minister, said: "Leicester and the communities around it have been running a very good campaign on this issue.

"The Government have made it clear that we see the progressive electrification of the rail network as an important part of our transport and environmental policy."

She said further details on what was happening with the electrification of the midland main line would be released in July.

[Btline]

Perhaps HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) will scupper this... at least North of Leicester.

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

I have been told by an industry insider that one of the constraints on electrification is the availability of sufficient trained and qualified workers to carry out the work. What is needed therefore is a longer term plan for continuing electrification where it can be justified so that future desirable schemes can follow on when current scjhemes have been implemented. The current schemes go on for another 4 or 5 years and planning needs to determine what will happen to those contruction resources after that so that there can be a smooth progression and not resulting in those valuable and expensive labour resources being dissipated elsewhere.

[paul7575]

She said further details on what was happening with the electrification of the midland main line would be released in July.

...which is when the CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019) HLOS^▸ (High Level Output Specification)/SofA is planned to be published.  

NR^» (Network Rail - home page)'s proposals for the CP5 investment programme already do include the MML^» (Midland Main Line. - about), as well - I reckon it has a good chance of being done.

NR's details include the entire route to Sheffield, and were published with HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) already under discussion, so I don't think an electrifcation to Leicester only is likely.  Leicester isn't a convenient terminus even in the context of an HS^▸ (High Speed (short for HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) High Speed Services)) line towards the NE, if there was to be an interim end of the wires you'd surely expect it to be after the point where the HS line crosses the Midland, eg at the expected East Midlands interchange, so you'd still wire to Nottingham/Derby anyway?

Paul