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ELECTRIFICATION CLEARANCES
Ian Prosser (‘Forum’, last month) is right to point out that it is wrong to suggest revised electrical clearance standards are the sole reason for electrification projects failing to meet timescales and budgets and that the Office of Rail and Road was not responsible for the specified increase from 2.75 to 3.5 metre clearance.
He is not quite right to suggest the UK special condition allowing 2.75 metre clearances has been removed. It still exists as Annex G in the European Standard EN 50122-1:2011. However, the British Railway Group Standard GL/RT1210 specifies that this Annex is not to be used. Thus, a pragmatic European standard has been subject to over-prescriptive UK interpretation.
The decision to ignore Annex G was taken by a British Standards committee, which amended the…
