Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Just had a leaflet from Network Rail through my letterbox advertising local Public Exhibitions in various Village Halls in the Pangbourne and Goring area in late January and early February to show and seek views on the “range of potential measures, or options, which would help to reduce the visual impact of the OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") in the area”.  Members of the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) project team will be on hand.

The information will also be available online from 21st January at networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire

Well done NR on this initiative.

Edit - the leaflet scanned better than I thought it would, so here it is:

[ray951]

I noticed today that some masts for electrification have appeared between Didcot North Junc and Appleford, these must have gone up over the weekend.
This follows on from piling carried out between Didcot East junc and Didcot North Junc on Christmas Day and between Didcot North Junc and Appleford just before Christmas.

Given that Didcot to Oxford electrification has been paused/deferred/cancelled I am surprised that they are putting up masts north of Didcot North Junc.

[paul7575]

I noticed today that some masts for electrification have appeared between Didcot North Junc and Appleford, these must have gone up over the weekend.
This follows on from piling carried out between Didcot East junc and Didcot North Junc on Christmas Day and between Didcot North Junc and Appleford just before Christmas.

Given that Didcot to Oxford electrification has been paused/deferred/cancelled I am surprised that they are putting up masts north of Didcot North Junc.

It's not the only area where the prophets of doom describe it as cancelled, but there's evidence on the ground that it is still in progress but to a delayed (but unpublished) deadline.    I await the next enhancement milestones with interest, they were last updated in October...

Paul

[stuving]

Given that Didcot to Oxford electrification has been paused/deferred/cancelled I am surprised that they are putting up masts north of Didcot North Junc.

What does deferral mean in commercial terms? I assume it means no more contracts will be signed, but work already committed by contract will continue. So anything underway will complete. After all, the stated (and quite plausible) objective was to avoid any change at the moment to the end product of the programme, while giving NR^» (Network Rail - home page) a bit of financial wiggle room in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019).

[IndustryInsider]

Are they definitely electrification masts, or might they be signalling gantry masts?  I only say that because the resignalling between Didcot and Oxford is continuing regardless of any electrification delay, though I also heard that a short section north of Didcot was still to be electrified anyway in relation to stabling of the new trains.

[Electric train]

I noticed today that some masts for electrification have appeared between Didcot North Junc and Appleford, these must have gone up over the weekend.
This follows on from piling carried out between Didcot East junc and Didcot North Junc on Christmas Day and between Didcot North Junc and Appleford just before Christmas.

Given that Didcot to Oxford electrification has been paused/deferred/cancelled I am surprised that they are putting up masts north of Didcot North Junc.

The Didcot area, which is one of the complex in GWEP^▸ (Great Western Electrification Program) its possible cost effective to do it now before the area is fully electrically operational that way it just needs a "buffer zone" going North.  There may be other reasons such as operational train moves around the Didcot triangle and traction power feeding around Didcot station from Didcot ATFS toward Reading in the even Didcot station area has to be isolated

[Noggin]

I noticed today that some masts for electrification have appeared between Didcot North Junc and Appleford, these must have gone up over the weekend.
This follows on from piling carried out between Didcot East junc and Didcot North Junc on Christmas Day and between Didcot North Junc and Appleford just before Christmas.

Given that Didcot to Oxford electrification has been paused/deferred/cancelled I am surprised that they are putting up masts north of Didcot North Junc.

As other posters point out, it's quite normal to have at least one wire run beyond a junction onto a non-electrified line to allow for manoeuvres, in case a train gets wrong-routed etc. The Marlow branch is a case in point. It may well also be the case that somewhere between Didcot North and Appleford was a planned section break in electrification, so it makes more sense to complete the planned works to that point, even though there are a few miles of wiring that are technically redundant for a few years.

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it), the deferral means that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) don't have to meet their statutory obligation to complete the work in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019), which means that NR, Oxford City Council and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) can take their time to sort out Oxford station (which should be a lot cheaper and less disruptive to rebuild whilst unwired), and likewise, NR can do Filton Bank quadrupling, Bristol resignalling and wiring/rebuilding Temple Meads without it having to be an expensive rush-job full of compromises and requiring expensive alterations later. As luck would have it, that probably saves NR a lot of money in CP5.

I'm not sure what that means in terms of the programme of work, there have been reports that piling has continued between Bristol and Bath, but perhaps that has just been due to work being programmed, resources booked, residents already leafleted etc?

[stuving]

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it), the deferral means that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) don't have to meet their statutory obligation to complete the work in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019), which means that NR, Oxford City Council and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) can take their time to sort out Oxford station (which should be a lot cheaper and less disruptive to rebuild whilst unwired), and likewise, NR can do Filton Bank quadrupling, Bristol resignalling and wiring/rebuilding Temple Meads without it having to be an expensive rush-job full of compromises and requiring expensive alterations later. As luck would have it, that probably saves NR a lot of money in CP5.

But all the sections deferred  (and only those) were already not due to complete in CP5, following the Hendy review.

[ray951]

Are they definitely electrification masts, or might they be signalling gantry masts?  I only say that because the resignalling between Didcot and Oxford is continuing regardless of any electrification delay, though I also heard that a short section north of Didcot was still to be electrified anyway in relation to stabling of the new trains.

Definitely electrification masts, the signalling gantries are much larger.

Does anyone know where this stabling point is going to be? Based on information from Didcot Railway centre I assume it is going to be next to them in the sidings currently used by DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) Cargo. But I have seen no plans and there is no evidence of any work in that area (or any other area in Didcot).

Any stabling point would need wiring and masts and currently the only wiring in Didcot, excluding the main-line, is between the station and Didcot West Curve and that is only partially complete.

[ray951]

AIUI^▸ (as I understand it), the deferral means that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) don't have to meet their statutory obligation to complete the work in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019), which means that NR, Oxford City Council and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) can take their time to sort out Oxford station (which should be a lot cheaper and less disruptive to rebuild whilst unwired), and likewise, NR can do Filton Bank quadrupling, Bristol resignalling and wiring/rebuilding Temple Meads without it having to be an expensive rush-job full of compromises and requiring expensive alterations later. As luck would have it, that probably saves NR a lot of money in CP5.

But all the sections deferred  (and only those) were already not due to complete in CP5, following the Hendy review.

Just because they weren't due to complete in CP5 doesn't mean that no money would be spent in CP5, if deferred means stopped until CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024) then no money will be spent until CP5.

Whatever the reality of the situation I hope they don't use the Oxford station rebuild as an excuse not to complete electrification to Oxford. As as far as I can tell there is no approved/finalised plan for the rebuild and their certainly doesn't appear to be any money so we could be waiting a long time/forever.

[paul7575]

But all the sections deferred  (and only those) were already not due to complete in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019), following the Hendy review.

The June 2016 milestones, which in some areas slightly revise the 'post Hendy' timescales, have a regulated output of "Didcot to Oxford complete" June 2019, so only 3 months into CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024).   

But then there is also a line in the table for "entry into service for part of route section for train testing" due in Sept 2018.   That is only 18 months away, so I would have thought that at least some section of the route will carry on at a slightly slower pace, but I'd be surprised if there was an obvious withdrawal of the entire workforce for a significant period.

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Whatever the reality of the situation I hope they don't use the Oxford station rebuild as an excuse not to complete electrification to Oxford. As as far as I can tell there is no approved/finalised plan for the rebuild and their certainly doesn't appear to be any money so we could be waiting a long time/forever.

That is my main concern.  It could be at least ten years before any new station is built.

[ray951]

But all the sections deferred  (and only those) were already not due to complete in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019), following the Hendy review.

The June 2016 milestones, which in some areas slightly revise the 'post Hendy' timescales, have a regulated output of "Didcot to Oxford complete" June 2019, so only 2 months into CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024).   

But then there is also an entry for "entry into service for part of route section for train testing" due in Sept 2018.   That is only 18 months away, so I would have thought that at least some section of the route will carry on at a slightly slower pace, but I'd be surprised if there was an obvious withdrawal of the entire workforce for a significant period.

Paul

But didn't the Grayling deferral come after that? And Grayling gave no dates or even any guarantees that electrification would ever be completed.

I would say that Sept 2018 was very unlikely given the lack of work undertaken between Kennington Junction and Oxford. No piling or even preparation for piling has ever taken place between those two places.

[Electric train]

The reasons I suspect the electrification is going slightly North of Didcot are -

• Didcot area is one of the more complex areas in the GWEP^▸ (Great Western Electrification Program), it makes sense to complete it all at one time.
  There may also be some train operational reasons for completing the lines North of the Didcot
  With the ATFS site to the West of Didcot Station there may be some alternative feeding arrangements via the route North.
  

One of the principle reasons for not going to Oxford is the rebuild of Oxford Station once that has been sorted out wiring to Oxford is quite simple

[TonyK]

Whatever the reality of the situation I hope they don't use the Oxford station rebuild as an excuse not to complete electrification to Oxford. As as far as I can tell there is no approved/finalised plan for the rebuild and their certainly doesn't appear to be any money so we could be waiting a long time/forever.

That is my main concern.  It could be at least ten years before any new station is built.

And any guesses on the revamp of Temple Meads?

A lot of the "preppy-uppy" work for electrification of Filton Bank has been done, if not all. I was beginning to think that was all for naught until I saw Paul's earlier post - you have been right on timings before, Paul, and I trust your judgement. It would make sense to get Four Track, Now! out of the way with electrification in mind rather than do it with it in place, then throw up the knitting after it's finished.

Between Thingley and Temple Meads is another matter. Much has already been done, notably Box Tunnel and Keynsham, but some big jobs remain, mainly the two tunnels closest to Temple Meads. This could be a reason for the truncation, but can't be the whole reason - why stop at Thingley when the coast is clear to Bath and slightly beyond? Another factor may be that the HOPS train, whilst doing what it was designed for, hasn't been the wonder we expected, because of the stuff buried trackside.