So why aren’t they getting on with it? The Plan claims ‘further electrification is under way’. In Scotland and Wales, yes, but not so much in England. Even now, only part of the long-awaited and previously cancelled Trans- Pennine electrification is being wired, plus just a further nine miles along the Midland main line from the new Corby electrification at Kettering to Market Harborough. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, and certainly not likely to convince many attending the World Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November that Britain really is in the van of rail decarbonisation.
Frankly, if the Department for Transport still can’t bring itself to authorise electrification of the 18-mile central part of the Trans-Pennine Route between Huddersfield and Stalybridge, which before the pandemic carried six passenger trains per hour in each direction and on which electrification would provide particular advantages over other forms of traction on the steep grades over the Pennines, what are the chances of any sensible implementation of the TDNS in the increasingly short time available to meet the Government’s own decarbonisation targets?
And while the DfT continues to dither on rail electrificatio…
