UK transport secretary says full electrification of railways ‘not affordable right now’
Heidi Alexander says focus will be on other projects such as HS2
Ministers are not planning to electrify any more of the UK’s railway lines in order to focus investment on other projects such as HS2, the transport secretary said.
Heidi Alexander said any further electrification of lines is “not affordable right now”, despite industry anger over decisions that have led to key routes being left with stretches that require diesel trains.
“We are only supporting projects that are fully costed and affordable,” she told the Rail Industry Association summit in London. She said approved projects included electrifying the Midland main line up to Wigston Junction, which is just south of Leicester, and enhancing the overhead lines south of Bedford.
“We are keeping further electrification of the line under review, which I believe is the responsible thing to do,” she added, doubling down on a decision first announced in July.
Alexander said the move has “allowed us to make commitments elsewhere”, including the record £3.2bn settlement with Transport for London, and allocating £20bn of contracts on the HS2 line.
But the industry has been frustrated that electrification projects have left several major lines with gaps. The decision to stop upgrades at Wigston has left Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield without a fully electrified line to London — requiring the use of diesel trains or hybrid models that use diesel and electric power, instead of new, fully electric trains.
One industry executive said the transport secretary’s comments on Wednesday showed she recognised the industry frustration over the issue, but that Alexander made clear no further investment was coming for badly needed electrification projects.
Later on Wednesday, Alexander will introduce the Railways bill in parliament, which will form Great British Railways, the body that will run the newly nationalised rail service.
The move reunites train operators with the management of the rail and signalling infrastructure for the first time since the industry was privatised in the 1990s.
The bill will not, however, set out how the network will be managed, or detail its cost savings.
Alexander told the FT that these details would come later after consultation with the industry.
“A lot of the work will be done as we do the design work for GBR, so that information isn’t contained in the bill,” she said.
In her speech, Alexander criticised the fragmented nature of the privatised sector, which she said was a “Kafkaesque nightmare of different contractual relationship and red tape”.
“We will never improve while the industry is fractured into 17 different industry bodies, each with their own teams, none working together, and each ready to blame each other when things go wrong,” she added.
GBR would be “one whole system, it will have an unashamedly long-term focus, and a mandate to drive up revenues and grow the railways”, Alexander told the conference.
However, Conservative shadow transport secretary Richard Holden told the event he was concerned the bill would not include any passenger growth targets.
“We believe [GBR] should be for passengers, and taxpayers and operators, not the government’s union paymasters,” he added.