Research produces a possible saviour of electrification
Iadmit I scoffed back in 2014 when, as electrification programmes lay dying all around, the only research project on the subject was for ‘aesthetic electrification masts’. I am all in favour of things looking better, and it would be difficult to imagine anything looking worse than Great Western electrification, but surely the priority was to make it cheaper, or there would be no electrification at all.
HEROES AND VILLAINS
Shortlisted from the 60 submissions was a design from Mott MacDonald and Moxon, which received £150,000 to further develop the system. This could possibly be the best £150,000 ever spent in the rail business, and is undoubtedly the best piece of research since the end of British Rail. This is genius.
The multiplication of electrification costs by four times has killed off many route miles which had a perfectly good business case and condemned us to a future of carrying around diesel engines and all the kit that goes with them. As is standard historical practice, rolling stock engineers have had to haul the infrastructure dullards out of the pit and keep the show on the road. Suddenly everyone wants hydrogen trains, even though th…
